LAURINBURG — A larger field of competitors during Tuesday’s cross country meet spread out Richmond Senior High School’s runners.
The Raiders and Lady Raiders ran their third 3.2-mile race of the season at Dragon Park.
Against host Scotland High School, Richmond also competed against Sandhills Athletic Conference powerhouse Pinecrest High School and Hoke County High School, along with non-conference Marlboro County High School.
The Patriots and Lady Patriots of Pinecrest made a clean sweep in both races. The top five runners for the boys’ and girls’ races all belonged to Pinecrest, as each team won with a score of 15 points.
“We ran against some tougher teams and in a much larger field,” head coach Ashleigh Buie shared. “That can create its own challenges by having the course full of more runners to try to get around. Our runners did a good job today dealing with that.
“Our goal each week is to continue to improve our technique and I think we were able to do that,” she added. “Facing other good runners only makes us better.”
Of the five teams competing, only Scotland didn’t have enough male or female runners to qualify for the team competition. Hoke County’s girls’ team also didn’t qualify.
While Richmond’s times were consistent to what they have been all season, no individual runner set a new season-best time.
Lady Raiders take second place
Behind Pinecrest’s 15-point victory, the Lady Raiders earned second place with 54 points. Marlboro County had 73 points for third place.
Richmond’s runners crossed the finish line in eighth, ninth, 10th, 13th and 14th places.
Leading the way was senior Mariana Mendez, whose eighth-place time of 23:30.00 got the Lady Raiders their first points.
Taking ninth and 10th place, respectively, were seniors Samantha Barnes (25:33.00) and Mascha Theijs (26:39.00).
Senior Alicia Webb (29:56.00) and sophomore Dayana Franco (30:38.00) capped the team’s scoring in 13th and 14th place. Also competing was junior Jada Scott, who crossed the line in 35:29.00.
Raiders place fourth overall
In the boys’ race, the Raiders secured 98 points to put them at the tail end of the four-team standings.
Ahead of Richmond were Pinecrest (15 points), Hoke County (64 points) and Marlboro County (67 points).
The Raiders’ qualifying times came in at 12th, 17th, 21st, 23rd and 25th place. Junior DJ Gainey paced Richmond with a final time of 21:08.00.
Next were freshman Victor Nguyen (22:28.00) and junior Jake Richardson (23:59.00). The Raiders’ final two top times belonged to freshman Elliot Samuels (26:56.00) and junior Luke Gilliam (30:29.00).
Senior Jaxon Chavis posted a time of 38:19.00 as Richmond’s final runner.
The Raiders and Lady Raiders will compete again next Tuesday at Lee County High School. Pinecrest will also compete.
