ROCKINGHAM – Hinson Lake in Rockingham was the site of the first Southeastern Middle School Athletic Conference cross country meet last Thursday, and it was a heavy showing for several of Richmond County’s middle schools.
Taking home the first victories of the season were the Hamlet Middle School Red Rams boys and girls cross country teams. Also finding their way into the top three of their respective races were Ellerbe Middle School’s boys team (second overall), and the Lady Rockets from Rockingham Middle School finished in second place behind in-county rival Hamlet.
In order to qualify for finishing, a school can run up to six boys or girls in their respective races, and only the top four runners are used in the team’s point total. The other runners serve as an opportunity to offset finishers from opposing teams, with the ultimate goal to be to score the lowest team total. Points are awarded by place of finish, so the first-place runner gets one point, whereas the 20th-place runner earns 20 points, and so on.
Times are kept by coaches for the teams’ and runners’ sake, but don’t have an impact on the awarding of points.
In the boys’ race, Hamlet, coached by Michelle Denson, placed all six of its runners in the top 16 slots. Spring Hill Middle School’s Colby Wright took the No. 1 spot, and Hamlet’s Christian Robinson finished in second. Samuel Hawks, London Garcia and Noah Willaims finished sixth through eighth, respectively, for the Red Rams, locking up a meet-best 23 points. Jason Walker (11th place) and Gavin Graves (16th place) finished ahead of Ellerbe’s No. 4 runner to secure the victory.
For the Wildcats, it was Bryan Morales (third place), Vance Goodwin (ninth place), Curtis Reams (10th place) and Mason Murray (17th place) who helped take the No. 2 spot with 39 points. Also helping Ellerbe were Kevin Dominguez (20th place) and Garret Mabe (21st place). Spring Hill finished third (52 points), and the Hoke County Middle School team was unable to run in the qualifying race due to arriving to the meet late.
Denson’s Lady Red Rams ran the table in the girls’ meet as well, having their top six runners all finish in the first 11 spots. Behind first-place finisher Qiara Worth (Spring Hill) and Rockingham’s Emoni McDonald, Hamlet’s Sheccid Heaton (third place), Layla Smith (fourth place) and Jenna Gardner (fifth place) rounded out the top five runners. Rylie Bohman notched the win for Hamlet with her seventh-place finish (meet-best 19 points), as teammates Ally Moore (eighth place) and Emma Altman (11th place) both finished ahead of several Rockingham runners.
The Hamlet girls’ team won by 31 points over Rockingham, as McDonald’s second-place overall finish wasn’t enough. Finishing out for the Lady Rockets were Gabby Lutz (15th place), Karter Walker (17th place), Evie Rae Howell (18th place), Andrea Ellerbe (19th place) and Ashley Canas (25th place) for a total of 52 points.
Ellerbe finished tied in fourth-place with Spring Hill with 64 points. Hoke County was also not allowed to run in the qualifying race because of its late arrival.
All teams will be back in action this Thursday at West Hoke Middle School in Raeford for the second meet of the season. They’ll follow up with a makeup meet, rained out from Hurricane Michael, next Monday at Spring Hill in Laurinburg. Both meets are set for 4 p.m.
