Photos by John Olson, SCRunners
Videos: races and interviews
TCR's girls continue to look good. Definitely the team to beat among NCHSAA 4A teams. Asheville's duo of Presson/Harwell have been leading the way for 4 years now.
Laura Hoer of TC Roberson continues to show her dominance on the rest of competition with another sub-19:00 performance. Last weekend, Laura won the WNC CC race by a slim margin over her freshman teammate, Brooke Gordon. This weekend in Spartanburg, Laura ran away from the field, winning by a margin of 26 seconds. Her time of 18:35 is a new personal best and is far better than her time of 19:44 from last year's Eye Opener meet. Laura proved to be a force during last outdoor track season with her 5:00 clocking in the 1600. She has obviously put in the work and is ready to roll this XC season.
Laura's teammates ran well, too, as the TC Roberson girls easily won the meet 59 to 120 over Wando. The TCR girls top 5 were:
1) Laura Hoer, 18:35
3) Brooke Gordon, 19:10
5) Sarah Hope, 19:27
20) Zoe Dubin, 20:27
27) Alyson Arrington, 20:55
*Marie Mauhar, one of TCR's top returners who broke 19:00 last year shoud be back racing the next couple weeks (rumor has it). TCR will be VERY tough.
In the boy's International race, Asheville's Isaac Presson won the race in a superb time of 16:00 on the tough course. His teammate, John Harwell, finished in 2nd place with a time of 16:08. These two are no strangers to running at the front of races as they truly have been doing it since they were in 9th grade. Asheville has been very lucky to have two of the top athletes in the state for the last 4 years.
However it was the TC Roberson boys who placed the highest from North Carolina. TCR finished 2nd overall with 117 points, 30 behind Dorman of South Carolina. TCR was led by Ben Duval and his 11th place finish. Asheville needs a bit more depth to go behind their 1,2 punch, as they finished 6th overall.
Chase Miller of Wilkes Central had another solid race running 16:35 for 5th place. Chase was NCRunners' pick to win the 2A state title and so far is looking very good.
Mallard Creek's boys placed 5th in the Championship Boys race led by Gentisso Dentamu's 3rd place overall finish. In the girl's race, Olympic's Kenyetta Iyebvele easily won with a time of 19:32, 38 seconds ahead of 2nd place. The Olympic girls finished 5th overall in the team competition.