CHARLOTTE — There were a few surprises for Watauga’s cross country teams at the Western Regional at Charlotte’s McAlpine Park Saturday. But as expected, both the boys’ and girls’ teams advanced to the state meet to be held this Saturday at Tanglewood Park. For the boys’ team, fourth place (104 points) got them into the state meet, but they were surprised by South Caldwell, who finished one point less to take third in the meet. McDowell took second with 76 points, six behind Myers Park, which won with 70 points. “McDowell ran pretty well, though I think they had more in them,” Watauga coach Randy McDonough said. “South Caldwell looks to be peaking at the right time. This is their first ever trip to states. They’ve got some kids that are growing up in a hurry.” Jason Childers, a former assistant under McDonough at Watauga, has turned the South Caldwell boys team into a contender. Of course, he has been helped by Chase Eckard, who won the race with a time of 16:05 seconds. The top finisher for Watauga’s boys was Aaron Bennett, who took ninth place. McDonough said he was not at all surprised to see Bennett leading the Pioneers instead of the usual top runner, Jacob Bathanti, who finished 12th. “He’s pretty much Jacob’s equal,” McDonough said. “He was fired up Saturday and ready to run.” However, McDonough said the boys need to pull their fourth and fifth runners closer to their top three, as they did at the Northwestern 4-A Conference meet, if they were to compete at the state meet. The Watauga girls’ team finished second with 84 points, just three points less than third-place South Mecklenburg. Providence ran away with the meet, winning with 20 points. Myers Park finished fourth with 107 points to round out the teams advancing to the state meet. Both South Meck and Myers Park snuck too many runners between Watauga’s third and fourth runners, McDonough said. The Pioneers first-to-fifth spread wasn’t as good as it was at the NWC meet, but it was still better than they had run before the conference meet. Anna Mae Flynn ran a 19:26 to lead the Pioneers and Meaghan Dolan was the fifth Pioneer in with a time of 21:57 for a spread of 2:31. McDonough said the team will have to close that gap to compete at the state meet. Flynn’s second place finish overall was partially surprising because she had been less than 100 percent through the week leading up to the meet. “She ran a great race, but she had been complaining about her legs being heavy this past week,” McDonough said. “But they didn’t look heavy Saturday.”
NCHSAA 4-A Western Regionals The top 10 team and individual results from the 4-A Western Regionals held at McAlpine Park Saturday in Charlotte: Boys’ team top-10 results: 1, Myers Park, 70; 2, McDowell, 76; 3, South Caldwell, 103; 4, Watauga, 104; 5, Providence, 125; 6, Freedom, 128; 7, Hopewell, 171; 8, North Mecklenburg, 267; 9, South Mecklenburg, 281; 10, A.C. Reynolds, 321. Boys’ individual results: 1, Chase Eckard (SC), 16:05; 2, Ross Hughes (MP), 16:17; 3, Alan Ford (Hope), 16:29; 4, Brandon Jones (Ind), 16:35; 5, David Elkins (MP), 16:38; 6, John Curtiss (Prov), 16:47; 7, Andrew Burnette (McD), 16:49; 8, Matt Holman (SC), 16:51; 9, Aaron Bennett (Wat), 16:52; 10, Zack McKee (Fre), 16:53. Watauga finishers: 12, Jacob Bathanti, 16:57; 14, Luke Short, 16:58; 35, Luke Nelson, 17:33; 38, Michael Sutton, 17:46; 40, Kevin Wade, 17:56; 50, Isaac Smith, 18:11. Girls’ team top-10 results: 1, Providence, 20; 2, Watauga, 84; 3, South Mecklenburg, 87; 4, Myers Park, 107; 5, North Mecklenburg, 205; 6, Freedom, 208; 7, A.C. Reynolds, 210; 8, McDowell, 212; 9, Alexander Central, 227; 10, Butler, 229. Girls’ individual results: 1, Alissa Wilke (Prov), 19:06; 2, Anna Mae Flynn (Wat), 19:26; 3, Autumn Todd (Prov), 19:37; 4, April Rowlan (Prov), 19:44; 5, Danielle McNamara (Prov), 19:45; 6, Ashley Norris (Wat), 19:49; 7, Caroline Johnson (Prov), 19:55; 8, Ashley Robinson (McD), 19:56; 9, Lauren Wells (SM), 10:07; 10, Jinnie Edwards (SM), 20:08. Watauga finishers: 12, Danielle Cullen, 20:18; 36, Dolly Dollar, 21:55; 38, Meaghan Dolan, 21:57; 51, Elizabeth Culatta, 22:52; 63, Kellen Moore, 23:23. |