Hayesville's Dylan Johnson achieved two major goals in the boys' race to close out his cross country career.

Meet Page

(Photos, Videos, Results)

 Combined State Meet Results

1A Boys

Dylan Johnson (Hayesville), the favorite coming into this race, did not disappoint as he went straight to the lead.  He was able to open a sizeable gap on the first pack after about 800 meters, with Central Academy of Technology teammates Elijah Inuwah (#542 right) and David Pann (#543 right) leading the chase.  As they approached one mile Frank Cline (Robbinsville, #753 right) left the main group and moved up to close the gap.  That caused the race to stretch out into more of a line, and by the midpoint of the race you could see Zach Boone (Mitchell, 685 below left) and Sam Williams (Bishop McGuinness, #541 below left) battling for third place.  Lake Norman Charter's pack had a great start to the race, putting them in the lead at the one mile mark.

Johnson was in complete control of the race at the two-mile mark, and only Cline had any hope of catching him after that point.  Williams had moved into third, with Boone fourth, all four of them strung out about 15-20 meters from each other.  Matt Panza (Lake Norman Charter) was having a good race to lead his team, running in the top 5 at this point, but farther back in the field the Bishop McGuinness runners were catching up to his teammates.

Johnson (right) held onto the lead all the way to the line and squeaked under the 16 minute mark, a new PR for him.  The top 4 held their order, including a courageous performance by injured Zach Boone to hold fourth place, while Will Jolly (East Wilkes) moved up in the final mile to take 5th.  In the team competition, Leland Lancaster (Bishop McGuinness) moved up several places over the second half of the race to help power his team to the championship over Lake Norman Charter, 49-76.  Defending champion Science & Math quietly moved up throughout the race with a closely-spaced pack, and they came within one point of stealing a spot on the podium.

1A Girls

Defending champion Kirsten Parries (Mount Airy) had her hands full with a newcomer in this classification, and it became clear that Sophia Bhalla (Lincoln Charter, #664 left) was going to force the pace of the race early.  Parries and Hannah Zenker (Franklin Academy, #589 left) tucked in behind Bhalla and tried to stay with her aggressive pace, but by the one-mile mark they were in single file and spaced out by 5-10 meters each.  Behind those three, Carly Kreber (Bishop McGuinness) might have gotten hung up in the crowd early on, as she was facing a gap of nearly 100 meters that she had to cross to threaten the top three runners.  Her Villain teammates were doing well further back, however, and the host school for the championship meet was in the lead after the first 1600.

By the time the runners made it to two miles, Bhalla had run away from her challengers, while Parries (right), Zenker, and a resurgent Kreber were lined up with about 10 meters of space between each pair.  Sarah Hardin (Lake Norman Charter) had moved into fifth place, hoping to boost her team's chances in the team scores, but Bishop McGuinness had five runners across the 3200 mark before LNC's third.  In the meantime, Lincoln Charter had begun to move within striking range in the team scores, as well.

Bhalla continued to stretch out her lead all the way to the finish, crossing the line in just a hair under 18:54.  Zenker, who looked like she was cooked at the two-mile mark, was able to rally to push past Parries for second place.  Kreber (left) was unable to make it all the way up to third place, but she did make up a huge amount of ground to finish only two seconds behind Parries.  It was enough for Bishop McGuinness, though, as they pulled off a 25-point win.  Lincoln Charter's depth runners made a late charge to get their team into second place, eight points ahead of Lake Norman Charter.