The No. 4 team on our boys cross country pre-season countdown are the Tigers of Chapel Hill!
The defending 2020 NCHSAA 3A state champions are back in 2021 ready to defend their crown, only this time it will be in the 4A classification.
Although they are losing five of their top seven from their state title team, this Chapel Hill squad has a history of depth and great summer improvement.
They have a 35 second split in their 1-5 runners, and 38 seconds from 1-6. That incredible depth can shake up the teams scores in any race!
Yichen Sun is the top returner for the Tigers, and holds a 16:12 personal best from 2019. Sun was runner-up at the 2021 NCHSAA 3A Midwest Regional where he ran a personal best of 9:44.
We did not see Nicholas Huger during track season, but the senior holds a 5000m personal best of 15:51 from 2019 in Colorado.
Ryan Ziaee ran 4:30 over 1600m and 9:48 over 3200m on the track, showing he has some closing speed.
Dylan Look broke out into a middle-distance star, running 1:54.48 in the 800m. He had ran 1:56 five straight times before breaking out a 1:54 at the 3A state meet to finish runner-up. He also holds a 4:18 1600m personal best from the Mount Tabor Mile. If Look can bring that success to the course, that raises the bar on this Chapel Hill team by a ton.
The battle for their No. 5 spot will be a friendly-team battle betweet Declan Harden and Ethan Feldt.
With the move up to 4A, these Tigers will have their work cut out for them in their quest to repeat, but given all the success this program has seen, do not expect them to fade into the shadows.
| 4 | Chapel Hill (NC) | 293 | ||
| 1) Yichen Sun | 16:15.86 | 27 | ||
| 2) Nicholas Huger | 16:23.00 | 40 | ||
| 3) Ryan Ziaee | 16:34.50 | 59 | ||
| 4) Dylan Look | 16:35.00 | 62 | ||
| 5) Declan Harden | 16:51.00 | 105 | ||
| Average Time: 16:31.87 Total Time: 1:22:39.36 1-5 Split: 35.14 | ||||
| 6) Ethan Feldt | 16:54.00 | 113 | ||
| 7) Jakob Maiwald | 17:12.60 | 159 | ||