Prep notebook: Leesville Road’s Nevada Mareno wins Footlocker South regional race
Leesville Road senior Nevada Mareno won the Foot Locker south regional cross country on Saturday. Mareno finished the 5K race a McAlpine Park in Charlotte in 17 minutes, 22 seconds to qualify for the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships national race for the second straight year.
The national race is Dec. 10 in San Diego.
Also qualifying was Cardinal Gibbons’ Connor Lane, who placed second in 15 minutes flat.
Mareno, who has signed with Stanford, is a two-time N.C. High School Athletic Association cross country champ and a national record holder in the indoor mile.
Lane won the NCHSAA 4A title earlier this month.
Friendship’s first wins: The Apex Friendship girls basketball team was winless in its first season but has started this year 2-0 with a pair of wins against Pinecrest.
Malaika Kimmons scored 21 points in a 53-47 win on Nov. 22 and Camryn Lunsford led Friendship with 16 points in a 51-42 win on Nov. 15.
Jim King/Orange Invitational: The 36th annual Jim King/Orange Invitational, one of the longest-running wrestling tournaments in the area, is slated for Friday and Saturday at Orange High, with the action starting at 3:30 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday.
Orange won last year’s 22-team field and 21 teams are expected this weekend. The school has posted results and placers from all 35 previous tournaments at ohswrestling.com.
Southeast Raleigh holds off Heritage: The first Southeast Raleigh Thanksgiving Invitational turned out to be just about everything Bulldogs girls basketball coach Nicole Meyers envisioned. There was a come-and-go crowd all day Saturday to watch 12 teams play six games.
The final tipoff was the marquee event with Southeast Raleigh (3-0) pulling out a 60-58 overtime win against Heritage (2-1) in a matchup of two of the Triangle’s top teams.
“It has been my vision for years to put girls basketball on a platform by itself,” Meyers said. “A lot of times the girls look for the boys to carry the invitational. It was great to see a great turnout just for girls basketball. We’re going to do this every year.”
Tom Shanahan
J. Mike Blake: @JMBpreps
This story was originally published November 28, 2016 at 12:37 AM with the headline "Prep notebook: Leesville Road’s Nevada Mareno wins Footlocker South regional race."