Only 3.1 miles remain for the Watauga cross country teams. They will travel to the course at Tanglewood Park in Winston-Salem for the NCHSAA 4-A State Cross Country Championships Saturday morning for the final leg of their season. With his teams having run some of their best races late in the year, Watauga coach Randy McDonough is optimistic of his teams’ chances at Tanglewood. “If the kids believe, I think the outlook is going to be pretty good,” McDonough said. “They’ve got to go in with the belief that they can beat other teams and they can beat the course.” |
They ran the course at the 4-Runners Invitational in mid-October. The boys’ team ran hard early, but faltered later in the race. That experience on the course will be priceless Saturday.
“It was one of the best times the boys have ever ran on that course, so I hope they take some confidence from that race,” McDonough said. “If the race ended at the mile marker, we would have won. But they died a little bit at the end. We’re trying to find a happy medium. We don’t want to be in the lead at the end of the first mile, but we want to be near the lead at that point.”
Watauga will be represented by Jacob Bathanti, Luke Short, Aaron Bennett, Luke Nelson, Isaac Smith, Kevin Wade and Michael Sutton on the boys’ side. On the girls’ side, the Pioneers in the final race will be Ashley Norris, Anna Mae Flynn, Danielle Cullen, Melody Dollar, Meaghan Dolan, Dolly Dollar and Elizabeth Culatta.
The girls’ team had Melody Dollar take seventh in the jayvee race with a time better than those of several girls in the varsity race. With her 22:37.62, she would have finished fourth among Watauga runners.
Dollar has been out with a hip injury and was unable to run at the western regional meet, but McDonough said she will be ready for the state meet.
“Melody Dollar is back and running,” he said. “She’s had a pretty good week of practices this week and it looks like she’ll be able to run.”
The boys’ team is waiting to find out if they’ll have Sutton, who has been ill this week. Sutton would be the only runner at the state meet for Watauga who missed the 4-Runners Invitational.
For both teams, McDonough said if they keep the right mindset and run well as a team, anything is possible.
“For the boys, as far as I’m concerned, the state is wide open,” he said. “For the girls, Providence is out there, but they’ve got to do it on the day of the state meet.”
The boys’ race will start at 10:30 and the girls’ race will follow at 11:30.
Watauga boys’ results at 4-Runners Invitational (10-16-04):
Jacob Bathanti, 17:15.56; Luke Short, 17:26.13; Aaron Bennett, 17:42.28; Luke Nelson, 17:56.11; Isaac Smith, 18:37.18; Kevin Wade, 19:11.01; Michael Sutton, NA.
Watauga girls’ results at 4-Runners Invitational (10-16-04):
Ashley Norris, 20:22.62; Anna Mae Flynn, 20:30.34; Danielle Cullen, 21:03.70; Melody Dollar, 22:37.62; Meaghan Dolan, 22:53.14; Dolly Dollar, 23:21.54; Elizabeth Culatta, 23:58.25.