GREEN HOPE SWEEPS NCHSAA STATE 4-A CROSS COUNTRY TITLES;
CHAPEL HILL MEN, CARDINAL GIBBONS WOMEN TAKE 3-A
KERNERSVILLE — Cary Green Hope swept both the men’s and the women’s team titles in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association state 4-A cross country championships at Beeson Park on Saturday.
Green Hope’s men’s team outran Hope Mills South View to take the title, with 80 points to 122 for South View. Asheville T.C. Roberson was third with 160 and Winston-Salem Mount Tabor captured fourth with 164 points.
Senior Blake Williams of Northern Durham was the individual 4-A champ in 15:29.38, just over 11 second ahead of runner-up Chris Garrett of West Johnston. Ryan Walling of Green Hope was the top finisher for the state champs, placing sixth overall and third among those scoring points.
The Green Hope women had an easier time, with an outstanding score of 34 to 115 for runner-up Watauga. Five of the top 12 scoring runners represented Green Hope.
East Chapel Hill was third at 123 and Charlotte Ardrey Kell fourth with 134 points.
Watauga’s Darby Middlebrook was the 4-A women’s top finisher in 17:52.16, 22 seconds better than Raleigh Millbrook’s Sammy George. Erica Amatori and Maura McDonnell were the top Green Hope runners, fourth and fifth overall.
Sarah Rapp of Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons won her third consecutive individual championship, as Rapp won the 3-A women’s race in 18:29.00 and lifted Gibbons to a narrow two-point victory in the team race. Cardinal Gibbons had five runners in the top 19 scorers and nipped Chapel Hill 82-84, with Charlotte Catholic (110) in third and North Buncombe (127) fourth.
Chapel Hill rolled to victory in the men’s 3-A competition, with five runners crossing the finish line among the top 11 scorers as the Tigers tallied just 39 points to 121 for Waxhaw Marvin Ridge. Concord Jay Robinson was third with 124 and Nash Central fourth at 142.
Graham Crawford of Burlington Williams won the individual crown with a time of 15:27.38, beating Marvin Ridge’s Chris Colo by just under three seconds.
The town of Kernersville is among the local sponsors for the cross-country championships. Other local sponsors include Greensboro Orthopaedic, Holiday Inn Express, Kernersville Running Club, OffnRunning Sports, Abbotts Creek Apartments, Chick-Fil-A, Kernersville News, S&R Motor Company and Visit Winston-Salem.
COMPLETE AGATE RESULTS CAN BE FOUND ON THE NCHSAA WEB SITE BY CLICKING ON CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS ON RIGHT OF HOME PAGE AND THEN CLICKING TO CROSS COUNTRY
