Cardinal Gibbons wins N.C. 4A cross-country championship, continues Triangle dominance
Wesley Haws’ second-place finish led Cardinal Gibbons to the 4A boys’ state team title Friday in the N.C. High School Athletic Association’s cross-country championships.
It marked the fifth consecutive year that a Triangle-area school captured the 4A boys’ championship in cross-country.
Cardinal Gibbons was second a year ago behind Broughton, which was not a part of the state championship field this year.
The 4A and 2A championships were decided Friday at Ivey Redmon Sports Complex in Kernersville, and the 3A and 1A events are scheduled for Saturday at the same site.
The 4A boys’ race was tightly contested, and only 16 points separated Cardinal Gibbons from seventh-place Green Hope.
The Crusaders finished with 103 points, barely ahead of runner-up Hoggard’s 105. Ardrey Kell (112), Cary (114), Myers Park (114), West Forsyth (118) and Green Hope (119) were right behind.
The individual race winner was Ardrey Kell’s Murphy Smith, in a time of 15 minutes 44.65 seconds over the 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) course.
Haws trailed Myers Park’s Maddon Muhammad in much of the 4A boys’ first heat but rallied for a 11.5-second victory. Murphy ran in the second heat and finished about two seconds ahead of Haws’ time.
Runners are being split into two heats in each classification, in order to help achieve social distancing and deal with COVID-19 health safety protocols.
Three other Triangle-area runners finished in the top 10 -- Panther Creek’s Justin Hayes (fourth), Cary’s James Elkan (ninth), and Heritage’s Max Geckler (10th).
4A girls
Pinecrest had the top two finishers, but the Patriots finished seventh in the team competition. Hoggard, with 96 points, edged Panther Creek (101) for the 4A girls’ championship. It was the Wilmington school’s second straight 4A girls’ title.
Trailing in the top five were Reagan (116), Myers Park (119) and Ardrey Kell (130).
Cardinal Gibbons was sixth and Apex 10th.
But the girls’ spotlight belonged to individual winner Carmen Alder, a senior from Pinecrest. She won the state title for the third time in her career, beating younger sister Vanessa, a sophomore, by a whopping 55 seconds for the championship.
A pair of Panther Creek seniors, Abby and Julia Patterson, finished seventh and eighth.
2A boys
North Lincoln took the team championship for the sixth time in the school’s 17-year history. The Knights won by a comfortable margin, with 40 points to 79 for second-place Atkins. Carrboro was seventh and Durham School of the Arts 10th in the 12-team field.
Atkins senior Walter Sellers won the 2A boys’ individual championship, and his time of 15:40.86 narrowly missed the meet record of 15:40.66, set in 2019 by North Lincoln’s Jason Thomson.
The top Triangle-area runners were Durham School of the Arts’ senior Ryker Mattioli, in 12th; and Carrboro junior Quinn Baker, in 13th.
2A girls
North Lincoln completed a school sweep in the 2A division, beating fellow South Fork 2A Conference member Lake Norman Charter, 42-62, for the team title.
Carrboro took third place, with 84 points.
North Lincoln senior Angie Allen ran away with individual honors, winning in a time of 18:05.5 -- 1:18 ahead of second-place Katherine Hopkins, a Lincolnton sophomore.
Carrboro junior Hannah Preissner ran fourth, and teammate Madeline Ramsden, a senior, was 13th.
Steve Lyttle on Twitter: @slyttle
This story was originally published January 22, 2021 at 2:28 PM.
