Leesville Road girls top Green Hope, Broughton boys win 4A Mideast cross country regionals

The speculation all season has been that the Leesville Road girls’ cross country team would be so good, it would be scary.

On Saturday, the den of Pride runners proved themselves past another round, knocking off seven-time N.C. High School Athletic Association 4A Mideast champion Green Hope.

For the first time in eight years, the region crowned a new victor when Leesville won the race with 47 points – just two fewer than Green Hope’s 49 – at the WakeMed course in Cary.

“We’ve been working for it all season,” said Leesville junior Nevada Mareno, who won the region’s individual title with a 16:47. “In July, we made a list of our goals for the season. They started small, like Cap-8 champs, then we wanted to be regional champs, and now our eyes are set on the prize: state champs.”

Mareno also was the Cap-8 champion a couple of weeks ago, setting a personal record to win that race with a 16:36. In Saturday’s regional event, she was all alone when she crossed the first mile split and finished comfortably in front of regional runner-up and Green Hope senior Elly Henes (18:11). Wake Forest freshman Erin Spreen was third at 18:15.

The Falcons have not only been the queens of the 4A mideast in recent years, they’ve dominated in the state finals, winning the last six.

“The years past don’t matter,” Green Hope coach Roger Collins said. “This is about this year. We knew going into the meet that Leesville was a fantastic program, and we knew they were going to be a great challenge for us today. Like us, I think they’re looking at states as the big meet. Today was just about getting qualified for the state meet.”

Apex (90) and Wake Forest (125) joined the Pride and Falcons as the four teams to qualify for the state championship meet on Nov. 7 at Ivey M. Redmon Park in Kernersville.

The individual girls who weren’t on one of those four teams and moved on to the state final were Panther Creek’s Bridgette Sullivan (18:23), Cary’s Sarah Venable (18:56), Enloe’s Cierra DellaRova (19.12), Millbrook’s Emilie Buzitsky (19.30), Sanderson’s Lauren Ammons (19:33), Holly Springs’ Caitlyn Morton (19:35) and Broughton’s Margaret Chapman (19:38).

In the boys’ race, Broughton swept the awards. Senior Jeremy Brown earned the championship with a 15:19, 16 seconds faster than his Cap-8 title time, while the Capitals finished with a team score of 40 and an average time of 15:48 to win it all. Green Hope (78), Apex (105) and Leesville (137) were the other teams to advance.

Middle Creek’s Jack Cawley (15:39), Cary’s Matt Thornton (15:54), Panther Creek’s Alec Carlson (15:56), Southeast Raleigh’s Jason Putnam (16:03), Clayton’s Roy Alex (16:05), Millbrook’s Luke Gostling (16:13) and Apex Friendship’s Wesley Provost (16:16) will also be going to the final meet.

Broughton will enter it having won four consecutive state titles in boys’ cross country.

The Leesville girls haven’t won at the state meet since 1998.

“I think we’re ready,” Mareno said. “We’ve been thinking about it all season; it’s been on our minds. We’ve been taking it race by race and making small improvements. I think even today, we didn’t see our full potential yet. We still have a lot more left in us, and I think that’s what we’ll see at states.”

This story was originally published October 31, 2015 at 2:44 PM with the headline "Leesville Road girls top Green Hope, Broughton boys win 4A Mideast cross country regionals."