The 2023 cross-country season looked to be wide open with many teams having a shot at the NCHSAA 4A team title. Marvin Ridge boys would start off the year winning Friday Night Lights, which had the top 18 teams in our returning rankings battling. They'd continue to beat all of their North Carolina competition throughout the entire season.
Despite their in-season success, the Mavericks still had a job to do on Saturday despite being the favorites. Hoggard, Broughton, Ardrey Kell, T.C. Roberson and Leesville Road all had teams with a realistic path to scoring an upset. We just saw Providence Day a week earlier at the NCISAA State Championships go from ranked fifth coming in, and finishing third at their conference meet, to winning the NCSIAA 4A title, so could certainly be done again.
Marvin was without #2 runner David Rivlin at the regional meet, and while they are a deeper team than most, would certainly open things up. Luckily, he was back in the lineup for the State Championship.
Junior David Firestone would lead the way for Marvin Ridge with an all-state performance individually finishing 9th overall in 15:52. TC Roberson would have their 1-2 just behind with Will Fiore and Nicholas Gibson finishing 10th and 12th overall. Broughton's Will Venable and Hoggard's Aedon Schroeder were right there as well finishing 11th and 13th respectively. Ardrey Kell would also be strong through two runners with Raghav Gopalakrishnan and Nicholas Grace finishing 2nd and 15th overall.
Michael Rivlin would lead two other Mavericks down the homestretch of Ivey Redmon finishing 20th overall in 16:12 with William Heyde and David Rivlin just a few seconds back 23rd and 24th overall. David Rivlin would actually fall just before the finish line as he and Heyde were in a battle to the finish. Luckily Rivlin would be able to get back on his feet and dive across the timing mat only lose two places. He left all he had out there.
Passing a falling Rivlin unfortunately would be T.C. Roberson and Ardrey Kell's 3rd runners in Kevin Cordero and Joseph Wells keeping things interesting in the team battle.
While it looked close for a second, Marvin Ridge slammed the door shut as Ishan More finished in 35th overall ahead of every other schools fourth man. With just a 36 second average from 1-5 Marvin Ridge would take the team title with 88 team points.
Despite strong days through four runners for TC Roberson and Ardrey Kell they would end up falling to Broughton. Just 26 seconds would separate the Captial's 2nd through 5th runners leading them to just slightly edge the field for 2nd overall. Though they just missed the podium both TC Roberson and Ardrey Kell ran much better than they were ranked coming in narrowly holding off Hoggard for 3rd and 4th respectively.
| PLACE | TEAM | POINTS | SCORERS | TIMES |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Marvin Ridge | 88 | 6+15+18+19+30 (38+95) | 0:36 1-5 Split | 16:11 Avg |
| 2 |  Broughton | 137 | 8+21+31+37+40 (76+109) | 0:47 1-5 Split | 16:25 Avg |
| 3 |  T.C. Roberson | 148 | 7+9+16+45+71 (101+110) | 1:22 1-5 Split | 16:26 Avg |
| 4 |  Ardrey Kell | 155 | 2+12+17+49+75 (118) | 2:04 1-5 Split | 16:20 Avg |
| 5 |  Hoggard | 158 | 10+22+33+42+51 (61+62) | 0:56 1-5 Split | 16:30 Avg |
| 6 |  Leesville Road | 187 | 13+26+29+55+64 (129+136) | 1:06 1-5 Split | 16:37 Avg |
| 7 |  Cuthbertson High School | 255 | 3+25+63+79+85 (94+96) | 1:48 1-5 Split | 16:48 Avg |
| 8 |  Weddington High School | 257 | 32+34+43+50+98 (124) | 1:07 1-5 Split | 16:52 Avg |
| 9 |  Reagan | 262 | 5+35+58+77+87 (126+140) | 1:40 1-5 Split | 16:52 Avg |
| 10 |  Chapel Hill | 269 | 36+46+54+66+67 (82+125) | 0:37 1-5 Split | 16:58 Avg |
I couldn't believe it when I heard it, but the research backs up this being the first NCHSAA XC title at any classification or gender for Marvin Ridge in school history. They had won both indoor and outdoor track titles, but fallen short in cross country despite having many strong teams over the years.
Also, as the Charlotte Observer's Langston Wertz noted on X, Marvin Ridge boys became the first Charlotte-area team to win the NCHSAA 4A title since North Mecklenburg's victory in 2001.
Marvin Rigde will only graduate William Heyde as the Mavericks will look to go back to back in
| 5000 METER RUN | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15:52.28 | David Firestone | 9th | Official 4A Boys Results | |
| 16:09.66 | Michael Rivlin | 20th | Official 4A Boys Results | |
| 16:12.82 | William Heyde | 23rd | Official 4A Boys Results | |
| 16:15.82 | David Rivlin | 24th | Official 4A Boys Results | |
| 16:28.32 | Ishan More | 35th | Official 4A Boys Results | |
| 16:41.51 | Kyle Barney | 44th | Official 4A Boys Results | |
| 17:37.79 | Tristan Gentille | 120th | Official 4A Boys Results | |