SANFORD — Despite facing tough competition, each member of the Richmond Senior High School boys’ and girls’ cross country teams recorded his or her season-best time in last week’s meet.
Running at the Kiwanis Park XC Course in their fourth meet of the season, the Raiders and Lady Raiders couldn’t keep pace with Sandhills Athletic Conference leader Pinecrest High School.
The Pinecrest boys would win by default since neither Richmond or Southern Lee had enough runners to qualify for team points. The Lady Patriots finished with a team score of 17 points, with Richmond in second with 43 points.
The Lady Raiders had five runners compete in the 3.2-mile race, with senior Maylyn Wallace finishing fourth overall (23:14), and was just 20 seconds off from breaking into the top three. Wallace’s time was her fastest in an SAC race this fall, but not her personal record.
A trio of Lady Raiders finished in 8th through 10th place — freshman Mariana Mendez, freshman Ella Munn and senior Michala Nechvilova.
Mendez’s time of 24:13 was 1:09 faster than her previous best time, Munn (25:40) took 2:18 off her previous personal record and Nechvilova’s mark of 25:43 was 1:16 better than her week two performance.
Also improving her time was freshman Alivia Webb, who finished the race in 12th place (26:47). Since the start of the season, Webb has taken nearly nine minutes off her race time, including 17 more seconds during Wednesday’s meet.
Richmond’s boys’ team had just four runners compete against Pinecrest, all of whom also posted season-low times. The Patriots took the top seven spots for points, while sophomore Chrisitan Sanchez took 8th place with a time of 21:43. He took 21 seconds off his previous PR.
In 9th place was junior Kodie Simmons (22:00), 10th place went to sophomore Cain Hunsucker (23:49) and freshman Adam Estridge placed 11th with a time of 26:21.
Simmons shaved 2:24 off his best time, Hunsucker was 1:19 faster and Estridge knocked 2:37 off his personal best.
The Richmond cross country teams will run again on Wednesday at home against Scotland and Union Pines high schools. The race will be held at Hinson Lake in Rockingham and will begin at 5 p.m.
