Favorites Prevail: 3A State Meet Recap

Let's face it - the athletes running in the afternoon session got the worst that the Ivey Redmon course had to offer, possibly the worst the course has ever been. By the time the 3A girls got to race at the end of the day, the course had been torn up by the passage of nearly 1000 runners over the course of the seven previous races, not to mention the continual rain. In those kinds of conditions, the strongest runners and teams are often able to separate more from the rest of the field. That's due in part to the fact that stronger runners are better prepared for the slog, allowing them to run closer to their normal speed. It's also true because they are able to get in front of the biggest crowds, see the course better, and therefore avoid some of the unpredictable things that can happen in the mud.

That's exactly what happened in both 3A races, where the heavy favorites in the team scoring looked as dominant as expected (in one case, even more so). There was only one upset among the two races, but in retrospect even that result wasn't terribly surprising. Check out our summaries below, and be sure to catch all the photo and video content from the meet!


Skip to 3A Girls Recap


3A Boys Recap

For the second straight year, the rain intensified just for the start of this race, but that didn't bother Jacob Gonzalez (South Johnston). He ran in heavy rain in at least one invitational this season, and he went straight to the front of the field in the opening 800. The rest of the contenders lined up behind him, perhaps hoping for a break from the weather. That's how they stayed through the mile mark, by which point the front 5 had broken away from the remaining challengers, with Mitchell Resor (Weddington) right on Gonzalez's shoulder. Teammate Matthew Conner was tucked in the back of the lead group in 5th, and there were two more Warriors in the chase pack - so even from the early parts of the race it was clear which team was in charge.

During the second mile Gonzalez faded just a bit, as Resor pushed into the lead. David Melville (Northern Guilford) and Alex Cornwell (Hickory Ridge) went with him, forming a 3-man breakaway that left the next group of runners fairly strung out behind them. Through the middle section of the race Weddington remained strong (particularly Colton Jordan), and the battle for second place in the team standings began to clarify. Northern Nash has its front 3 runners in great position, but there was a sizable gap back to their 4th and 5th; on the other hand, Chapel Hill had its leaders farther back but greater cohesion from 1-7, and the Tigers were looking to rise.

Over the final 800, it was Melville who surged into the lead. The sophomore showed a strong tendency to perform well in poor conditions all season, and that earned him a 3A state championship on Saturday! Resor finished well in second, but he simply could not match Melville's strength down the stretch. Cornwell held on for 3rd place to cap a strong senior season, and we only wish he had been able to race his friend and rival Zachary Marchinko, who was sick all week and unable to race. Conner gave Weddington two in the top 4, while Gonzalez rounded out the top 5.

Behind their powerful top 3 (Jordan finished 9th!), Weddington won big with 52 points. Chapel Hill was able to make up enough ground on the top 3 Northern Nash runners (and put the Knights' 4th and 5th far enough back) to slip into the runner-up spot with 95. Northern Nash was able to hold off Asheville for 3rd place.



3A Girls Recap

Anna Vess (A.C. Reynolds) had been here before - after all, she won the 3A title under equally challenging conditions last year, and she didn't take long to establish her position in the front of the race. Alexa King (Marvin Ridge) tucked right in behind her, with Emme Fisher (West Carteret), who finished 3rd in 2014, lurking a little farther back. Haley Schaeffer (Jacksonville) also got out to a good start, crossing the 800 mark in 3rd place to stay clear of the traffic back in the pack.

Chapel Hill's girls had been ranked #1 in the classification all season, and it turned out that we hadn't even seen their best year. That became clear after the opening 800, when the Tigers rounded the curve at the top of the hill with Katherine Dokholyan and Clare McNamara both in the top 7. As the race passed through the inner loop to the mile mark, the Tigers' 3rd through 7th runners were all in the top 20 and packed up nicely. Although Marvin Ridge also got out well, the Mavericks were trailing the aggressive start by Chapel Hill from the outset. Another Union County school, Cuthbertson, was also going for it with a strong first mile.

Once the leaders got down to the bottom half of the course they really began to string out, and each was faced with the challenge of essentially running solo. Dokholyan had moved into 2nd place with McNamara in 3rd, further cementing the Chapel Hill grip on the top of the race. Making their presence even stronger, Marija Crook had moved all the way up to 5th, while Fisher had dropped back a few places. Marvin Ridge was still running well but spreading out a bit, and behind them yet another of their local rivals was rising - Weddington's girls were clustered just behind the 4th-7th runners of Chapel Hill and working well together. Whichever way the three teams fell, though, it seemed clear that Union County would go 2-3-4.

Vess ran strong through the final mile to post the 3rd-fastest time of the day, and she did that in the worst conditions! In fact, the entire top 5 stayed the same from the two mile mark on, with King in 4th place as the only person breaking up the Chapel Hill trio. Fisher rallied back up into 6th place, followed by a pair of sophomores in Paige Horvath (Swansboro) and Giavanna Sirianni (South Iredell).

As a team, Chapel Hill started strong and then only seemed to get stronger as the race went on. They posted the lowest score of any team in the championship with 32 points, outpacing Marvin Ridge by 44. The Mavericks were able to stay on top of the Union County bragging rights, with Weddington moving up enough to take 3rd place away from Cuthbertson.


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