South Pointe’s boys finished second of 20 teams at the South Mecklenburg Cross Country Invitational on Saturday, the strongest team result among York and Lancaster county schools at the Larry McAfee Course in Charlotte.
The Stallions scored 141 points in the Touranjoe race, trailing only Green Hope of Cary, which won with 128. Hunter Willis crossed ninth at 16 minutes, 22.60 seconds and Reece Adams followed in 11th at 16:27.70. Copeland Crawford took 18th at 16:51.60, with Gray Shelton 42nd and Lucas Watson closing the scoring in 61st.
The meet divided its field into three sections for each gender, each scored on its own. Six schools from the two counties entered.
Harvey leads Northwestern
Grace Harvey finished third of 144 runners in the girls Invite race at 19:17.18, the fastest time posted by a local runner in any section Saturday. Northwestern placed third as a team with 97 points behind Lake Norman Charter and Davie County.
Three Laval sisters scored for the Trojans. Chloe Laval took 10th at 20:56.77, Skyler Laval 16th at 21:24.17 and Lily Laval 38th at 22:26.26. Bristol McKinnon rounded out the scoring in 36th.
Northwestern’s boys were seventh of 19 in their Invite race with 197 points. John Michael Slater led them in 20th at 17:38.35.
Faircloth tops local girls in Touranjoe
Libba Faircloth of South Pointe placed ninth at 19:09.19 in the girls Touranjoe race, where the Stallions finished 12th with 298 points. Ella Hopkins was next in 45th at 21:01.58.
Indian Land finished 15th in the same race but moved its five scorers across in just over a minute, from Charleigh Moore in 91st at 22:50.69 to Isabella D’Alessandro in 105th at 23:56.82. Mitchell Bergman led the Indian Land boys in 35th at 17:17.50, and the Warriors placed 16th in the boys Touranjoe.
York and Lake Wylie
Eighth grader Quinn Witte was York’s first finisher in the boys Invite race, taking 77th at 19:29.44. Daniel Kearney followed in 99th and Jayden Garrison in 101st. The team placed 18th of 19. York entered three girls and did not score.
Lake Wylie took 10th in the boys Invite behind Maitland Vanourny, who ran 17:17.19 for 13th, and sixth in the girls Invite behind Zoe Miller’s 21:18.43.
In the JV races, Northwestern’s girls placed seventh, South Pointe’s boys 12th and Lake Wylie’s girls 15th.
Nation Ford boys run in a tight group
Nation Ford placed fifth of 20 teams in the boys Touranjoe race with 171 points, moving five scorers across the line inside 45 seconds. Sparsh Vaghani led the group in 23rd at 17 minutes, 0.40 seconds, followed by Robert Saddler in 26th at 17:06.10 and Alex Royall in 27th at 17:06.60. Eighth grader Richard Bailey took 41st at 17:22.80 and Alejandro Luna closed the scoring in 54th at 17:44.80. Green Hope won the race with 128 points.
Catawba Ridge finished eighth in the same race with 198 points, tied with Lake Norman and losing the tiebreaker. Ryan Pierson paced the Copperheads in 12th at 16:30.00, with Lincoln Smith three places back at 16:33.90 and Tyler Merrigan 29th at 17:12.50.
Copperheads take second in the JV race
Catawba Ridge turned in the district’s strongest team result of the day in the boys JV race, finishing second of 29 teams with 140 points behind Green Hope. Mason Greear led the group in ninth at 18:55.75, and Kushal Yedugani and Luke Sivil followed in 23rd and 25th. Nation Ford placed ninth in that race with 244 points.
Falcons ninth in girls Touranjoe
Karson Woodring led Nation Ford in 29th at 20:17.87, with Haley Garcia 32nd at 20:27.23 and Eva Mabey 40th at 20:40.55. The Falcons scored 220 points for ninth of 16 teams. North Lincoln won with 30.
Olivia Gillespie was the top Catawba Ridge girl in 39th at 20:38.10. The Copperheads placed 13th with 343 points.
Nation Ford’s girls JV squad finished third with 122 points, led by Megan McGovern in seventh at 23:01.27 and Brooklyn Cox in eighth at 23:07.71. Catawba Ridge was 13th in that race.
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