NCXC Highlights: Week 3

5 Stage 8-Mile HS Relay by lvass

 

The girls results have not been reformatted and uploaded into the system.

 

Kaitlyn Kramer of Ardrey Kell defeated Sarah Rapp of Cardinal Gibbons by a mere 2 seconds. Ardrey Kell's girls looked good and rumor has it they haven't yet showed all their cards. Not sure if they can compete with the #2 ranked team in the SE region, Green Hope, but they will surely try.

 

Green Hope swept both Championship races and look to be taking the #1 spots in both 4A polls.

 

The GH boys defeated the former #1 ranked Broughton HS which basically begins the crazy switching that we'll probably see all season long.

 

In the championship boys race, Cardinal Gibbons was the 1st non-4A school to finish in the team competition and look to be about #3 in the 3A right now. Their girls were also the top finishing non-4A school and placed 4th overall. This team could battle Chapel Hill in the end for the 3A title.

 

A few smaller schools to watch:

* Carrboro boys & girls - looking good and will sit at the top of the 2A rankings (both boys and girls)

* Forsyth Country Day girls - will battle for 2nd at NCISAA state meet

* Topsail girls - with loss of Loewen, still look strong

 

Reagan's boys look really good and are definitely a sleeper in 4A. They put 4 boys near and 2 under the old course record on the tough Cannon course. Forrest Lyerly is undefeated and looked really tough breaking the previous course record by 49 seconds!!!! He is definitely sub-16:00 on most courses. Look out for this team as they are underrated in the 4A polls.

 

The Providence Day boys placed 2nd and had a much tighter 1-5 gap than previous meets. This team has had 3 different #1 runners in their 3 meets. Lake Norman Charter and Jay M. Robinson both looked good as well. LNC has proven themselves this season and may just be the #1 ranked 1A school. Robinson has Koerwitz back and are a top-5 3A team with him running.

 

Gray Stone Day's girls won the event thanks to Charlotte Latin not having their top 3 girls. Latin still placed 3 among the top 6, so obviously this is one tough team. However, Gray Stone Day did win and they defeated Lake Norman Charter who just defeated the previous #1 ranked 1A school, Hendersonville (hope you followed that). Gray Stone's girls are for real!

 

Chapel Hill won both the boys and girls races in dominant fashion. Will Bunch won with an impressive time of 16:02!

 

East Chapel Hill girls win over Chapel Hill!

 

Western Carolina Cross Country Festival by blueskydwg

Meet Results

West Henderson girls! This team is also overlooked among 3A schools. Don't count them out in the top 4. I really like this team as I've already seen them twice this year.

Tyler Breedlove of Hayesville impresses once again after a great WNC race and a subpar Cavalier Classic race. Tyler may give Matus Kriska a run for his money at the state meet.