SOUTHERN PINES — The Elk’s Lodge cross country course is arguably the toughest 3.2-mile circuit the Richmond Senior High School teams have to race year in and year out.
That was still the case in Wednesday’s Sandhills Athletic Conference meet, but both the Raiders and Lady Raiders used the hilly terrain to push themselves to the finish line.
The Lady Raiders, led by junior Maylyn Wallace’s sixth-place time of 23:20, took second overall in the field of four teams.Richmond tallied a team score of 53 points, just ahead of third-place Jack Britt High School (62 points).
Also running was first-place finisher Pinecrest High School (18 points) and Scotland High School did not have enough runners to qualify for the team score.
“The Elk’s course has a big hill in the back that goes up and down a couple of times and that is what makes this course feel harder,” Wallace explained.
“When running on difficult courses and against hard teams, it helps us grow mentally and physically,” she added. “It helps us mentally because we know our times and what we need to do to beat it, and physically, our muscles get stronger every hill we run.”
The good news for the Lady Raiders is that several runners took significant time off their mark from the first race at the Elk’s Lodge in November. Wallace’s time was 1:05 faster, while sophomore Rylie Bohman’s 12th place time of 26:14 was 63 seconds quicker.
Rounding out the top five for the Lady Raiders’ team score were sophomore Sheccid Heaton (27:05, 15th), freshman Kaleigh Cloninger (29:42, 16th) and freshman Gabby Lutz (30:38, 17th). Heaton’s pace was 1:09 seconds faster than her first go-around a couple of weeks ago.
In the boys’ race, it was senior Carson Jordan who once again set the tempo for the Raiders, who finished fourth out of the teams competing. Jordan crossed the finish line in 21:19, good enough for 16th place. That time was 39 seconds faster than his previous mark.
“It wasn’t my best time, but I’m content with the improvement compared to our last visit,” Jordan said. “We faced colder weather and lots of hay, which is pretty ingenious and something I’ve only seen on their course.
“The biggest improvement on our team is getting in the headspace to focus on cutting times and seeing it through,” he added. “We haven’t stagnated and if we are able to compete in January’s meet, I’m confident we’ll see higher placements and lower times.”
Host Pinecrest would also win the boys’ race, collecting 17 points. Scotland had 46 points, Jack Britt tallied 72 points and Richmond ended the day with 110 points.
Senior Will Thompson was the second Raider to finish, using a time of 23:09 to take 21st place. Also running for Richmond were sophomore Ethan McDonald (24:48, 23rd), freshman Cain Hunsucker (25:00, 24th) and Samuel Hawks (25:20, 26th).
The cross country regular season is now complete, with a conference championship meet set for early January.
