Cross country conference roundup: Cardinal Gibbons girls reach perfection in PAC-6

The Cardinal Gibbons girls cross country team couldn’t have finished any better in last week’s PAC-6 Conference championships, taking the first seven spots to score a perfect 15.

Sophomore Katharine Priu (18:33) won the title with Sloan Walter (18:57) second and Marissa Bishop (19:48) third. The top seven were all under 20 minutes.

The Gibbons boys helped pull off the sweep thanks to champ Connor Lane (15:52), runner-up Sam Thornton and third-place Sam Grelck. Jordan, led by seniors Quinton Meyer (fourth) and Matthew Staehle (fifth) was runner-up by a 22-50 score.

Most other conferences held their championships on Wednesday, with a few Thursday exceptions.

Big 8 3A: Chapel Hill swept both team competitions, topping Cedar Ridge 20-52 in boys and 18-61 in girls.

Cedar Ridge senior Ian Elliott (16:42.28) and Chapel Hill junior Katherine Dokholyan (19:18.00) both repeated as individual champions. Chapel Hill’s Ryan Combs finished second and Joseph Graden third, leading a group of 10 Chapel Hill boys runners who finished in places 2 through 11.

Chapel Hill’s Clare McNamara was second and Elizabeth Zarzar of Cedar Ridge third in the girls’ race.

Eastern Carolina 4A/3A: D.H. Conley’s girls were runner-up to New Bern (30-37). New Bern’s Nicole Ohannesian (20:31.16) won the title while D.H. Conley’s Emma Cole and Jenna Rupp were second and third.

New Bern also won the boys’ title with Conley second. J.H. Rose’s Jonathan Timothy (17:02.46) was the champion with New Bern’s Jonathan Johnson second and Conley’s Lucas Wiley third.

Mid-South 4A: The Overhills girls were runner-up to Hope Mills’ South View High. Makayla Lawler was fifth.

Big East 3A: Northern Nash’s boys went 1-2-3 to win the title and were well ahead of runner-up Rocky Mount (21-59). Daniel Belton (16:56) won the title while Jordan Richardson and Joseph Dees were second and third.

The Northern Nash girls made it a sweep, beating out Rocky Mount 32-60. Rocky Mount’s Barkley Browder (21:29) won the title while Northern Nash’s Mackenzie Proctor and Halie Huffman were second and third.

Two Rivers 3A: The conference title was pushed back from Thursday to Friday after a chemical spill on nearby I-95 pre-empted the race’s first try just before it began. Corinth Holders swept both team titles as Cleveland was second in both.

Cleveland had two families take first and second in both races: Jasmine Cullins and Jessica Cullins went 1-2 in girls and Gable and Wyatt Dershem went 1-2 in boys.

Eastern Plains 2A: Beddingfield’s boys (57 points) narrowly held off Washington (59) and Farmville Central (62). SouthWest Edgecombe’s Jeshon Smith (19:07) won, while Farmville Central’s Bobby Mills and North Pitt’s Lucas Tripp were second and third.

Farmville Central’s Brooke Schwieterman was second to Washington’s Kennedy Landen while North Johnston’s Tayanna Jones was third. Washington ran away with the title.

Mid-State 2A: Carrboro had all seven of its girls runners in the top nine and seven out of the top eight in the boys’ competition to run away with both titles. Carina Taylor (21:59) won the girls’ title over teammates Elise Deshusses and Lia Miller and Jordan-Matthews’ Karmen Brown.

Cole Honeycutt (17:40) was the boys’ champ by 1 minute, 17 seconds over Carrboro teammate Amado Ruiz-Perez.

Northern Carolina 2A: Team titles went to the Durham School of the Arts’ girls and the N.C. School of Science and Math’s boys. The DSA girls won 23-32 over NCSSM and NCSSM won 22-40 over the DSA boys.

DSA’s Destiny Stevons (21:09.03) won the girls’ team title with teammate Grace Rogers third and NCSSM’s Scout Hayashi second. NCSSM’s Lawton Ives (17:18.89) won the boys’ title with teammate Skanda Sastry second and DSA’s Ben Kearsley third.

Central Tar Heel 1A: North Moore’s girls edged Chatham Central 45-46 despite Chatham Central placing three of the top four in Chesney Crowley (second), Caitlin Beavers (third) and Hayley Mashburn (fourth).

Chatham Central held off Chatham Charter 36-67 for the boys’ title thanks to runner-up Caleb Johnson, third-place Kameron McNeill and fifth-place Ben Lineberry.

North Central 1A: Raleigh Charter claimed the boys’ title 24-56 over runner-up Voyager Academy while Franklin Academy won the girls’ competition 39-61 over Raleigh Charter.

Tar-Roanoke 1A: Oxford Prep won its first conference title in school history by taking the boys’ title, edging Granville Central 49-53. The Gryphons were led by runner-up Nathan Metcalf. Granville Central’s Jermias Rush was third.

Granville Central dominated the girls’ meet led by conference champ Kathleen Burroughs (19:41) and runner-up Destiny Vanegas Perez. Oxford Prep’s Catherine Slack was third.

TISAC: Cary Academy’s two-time state champ Sarah Bodmer (18:51.90) won the girls’ race while Coleman Mitchell (15:49.10) crushed the field in the boys’ competition on Thursday.

CA won the girls race handily (17 points to runner-up Ravenscroft’s 62) but the boys came down to the wire as Durham Academy edged Cary Academy 26-34.

This story was originally published October 20, 2016 at 8:55 PM with the headline "Cross country conference roundup: Cardinal Gibbons girls reach perfection in PAC-6."