Prep notebook: Leesville Road’s Nevada Mareno wins NC Gatorade girls runner of the year

Leesville Road junior Nevada Mareno was honored with the N.C. Gatorade Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year award. Mareno, the NCHSAA 4A state champ in the fall, was also a Footlocker All-American by taking third in the national meet in San Diego.

Finn back to Southeast Raleigh?: The Wilmington Star-News is reporting that former Southeast Raleigh football coach Daniel Finn is returning to the take over the program again.

Finn, who for the last two years has been at South Brunswick, was the Bulldogs coach from 2006-11 and amassed a 56-21 record with six playoff berths and one conference championship (2008) before stepping down to focus on being the school’s athletics director.

After two years of that, he got back into coaching at South Brunswick, where he was 4-8 and 2-9 in two seasons.

Shytle an All-American: Heritage senior Logan Shytle, the N.C. Soccer Coaches Association boys player of the year, was named a fall All-American by the National Soccer Coaches of Association of America. Shytle had 41 goals and 13 assists.

Norris, Walston given NFHS honors: Brent Walston, the boys soccer coach and athletics director at Corinth Holders, was one of 22 coaches selected as a national coach of the year by the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Chapel Hill’s Sherry Norris was selected by the NFHS as its N.C. coach of the year in girls basketball.

The NCHSAA will present Walston and Norris with their awards at the May 2016 Annual Meeting.

Council scores 43: Northern Durham’s Rhianna Council had 43 points in a 60-53 overtime win against the Cardinal Gibbons girls on Friday. She is averaging 24.9 a game.

Getting 1,000 points: Two more area girls basketball players reached the 1,000-point mark last week – Saint Mary’s Andy Smithey and Union Pines’ Nyona Shields.

In boys’ basketball, Wilson’s Greenfield School has a young 1,000-point scorer. Coby White, a sophomore, is pour in 29 points per game this year.

Getting 100 wins: Panther Creek’s Miles Kent recored his 100th wrestling victory last week.

McGhee sets records: Roxboro Community junior Darius McGhee has broken the NCHSAA record for most consecutive 40-point games (he has four entering this week) to break a mark held by Garner standout Donald Williams, Cherryville grad Terry Whisnant and Eastern Alamance’s all-time NCHSAA leading scorer JamesOn Curry.

Williams, who was the MVP of the 1993 Final Four for the Tar Heels, did the feat twice in 1991.

McGhee has tied the mark for the most 40-point games in a season (nine) with North Henderson’s Chris Vanlandingham.

This story was originally published January 17, 2016 at 11:16 PM with the headline "Prep notebook: Leesville Road’s Nevada Mareno wins NC Gatorade girls runner of the year."