WENDELL - It's always tough to get a read on exactly where the West Johnston cross country stands during the Greater Neuse River 4-A Conference dual meet season.

That's because the Wildcats traditionally use those meets as lighter training-day runs after going through a heavy workout.

"The way we handle meets during the week is kind of a necessity," coach Patrick Shaw said. "We're in a lot of the bigger meets on Saturday and can't train very hard on Monday because of that, so Tuesday becomes a heavy training day, and it just doesn't make much sense to run them hard again on Wednesday. It's only going to wear them down as the season goes along."

So West Johnston's team typically crosses the finish line as a group, running a previously agreed time that ends in zeroes.

But the only number that showed up for West Johnston on Tuesday were a quartet of big No. 1s -- as in first-place finishes, leaving no doubt where the Wildcats stand among the conference fray. West walked away with both individual championships and both team titles.

West won its fourth straight boys team title in dominating form, placing all five of its point-scoring runners in the top nine individually, led by state indoor 3,200 champion Dakota Peachee.

Peachee, running for the first time in nearly two weeks because of an injury, bettered the field by nearly a minute, finishing the 5K course at Wendell Community Park in 15:26.1. Teammate Chad Massengill ran fourth.

Smithfield-Selma, led by Josh Autry's fifth-place finish, took second in the boys' team run, and Southeast Raleigh was third.

On the girls' side, defending state indoor 1,000 and outdoor 800 champion Maraya Slatter was also dominant. She topped defending conference champion Catie Simmons of Clayton by 39 seconds. Slatter ran 18:37 to Simmons' 19:02.

West juniors Kelly Montague and Ashley Matthews were fourth and fifth, respectively, behind SSS freshman Cassandra Lindquist in third.

West placed all seven of its girls' runners in the top-17 individually, winning its second consecutive league team title. Clayton took second, followed by SSS.

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