Ryann Aycock after a 3rd place finish at the Jungle Run
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8th grader Ryann Aycock of Cary Christian School won the first of what looks to be many NCISAA State Championships over her career.
The middle schooler had run 2:30, 5:14 and 11:06 so far this season across the three distance events. A year ago she was 12th, 10th and 7th across the 800m, 1600m and 3200m as a 7th grader.
Aycock had success in cross country this fall where she ran 18:48 at the Jungle Run and took 4th at the NCISAA 3A State Championships.
Aycock's state championship would begin on Friday night where she would run a leg on Cary Christian's 4x800m Relay which took 3rd in 10:20.16.
She'd have to square off against two-time defending 3200m state champion Olivia Sutter (Carolina Day). Sutter ran 11:14 for a PR a year ago to claim the 1A/2A title.
Aycock broke the race open winning by 27 seconds and she was just off her season best of 11:06 clocking 11:13.45. Sutter would take second ahead of Aycock's teammate Zoe Vestal running 11:40 and 11:55 respectively.
She'd first battle it out with Grace Christian School's freshman Sarah Mitchell who had a seasons best of 5:23. The two would dominate the field en route to major PRs of 5:07.96 to 5:08.02 as Aycock would edge Mitchell at the line by .06 seconds.
Aycock would then go on to take 2nd to Carolina Day freshman Erin Hovendon (Carolina Day) who ran 2:25.29 to Aycock's 2:27.71.
Overall a super impressive two days from the Cary Christian middle schooler. 5:07.96 is the fastest middle school mark we can find for the 1600m ahead of Charlotte Bell's (Cuthbertson MS) 5:12.64 from the NCRunners Middle School Elite Invitational earlier this year. Her 11:06 3200m PR is also the fastest we can find in middle school history.
A new star is certainly upon us on the North Carolina distance side!
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