CAMERON — A familiar yet unfamiliar course marked out the first meet of the season for the Richmond Senior High School boys’ and girls’ cross country teams Tuesday.
Competing against two other Sandhills Athletic Conference teams, the Raiders and Lady Raiders ran at host Union Pines High School.
With Lee County High School also in attendance, the runners ran the 3.2-mile race on a newly designed course with flashes from the previous course intermingled.
With all three teams competing in the boys’ race, the Raiders took second overall with 54 points. Winning the meet were the host Vikings (15 points), while Lee County took third place (69 points).
In their race of just two teams, the Lady Raiders placed second with 45 points. Lee County did not have a team and Union Pines won with 18 points.
Each team could run as many as seven runners with the top five times taken for scoring purposes.
“We did really well,” co-head coach Morgan Tedder said. “They changed the course at Union Pines this year and it was a little confusing to all of the runners. But our runners stayed with it and put in some really good times.
“The first race always has a lot of nerves and I think we handled them well,” she continued. “This is a great starting point for us and gives us a chance to see how we can continue to improve.”
Raiders’ newcomers help set pace
All seven of Richmond’s boys competed Tuesday and were led by senior first-year runner James Coicou. Taking seventh overall, Coicou recorded a time of 20:30 for seven points.
Junior DJ Gainey, a newcomer by sorts, returning to the sport for the first time since his freshman season, was on Coicou’s heels for eighth place. He set a new personal record of 20:43, exactly two minutes faster than his previous best race time.
The Raiders’ next two runners to cross the finish line were freshman Victor Nguyen (21:32, 11th place) and junior Jake Richardson (22:45,13th place). Their points were added to by freshman Elliot Samules, who placed 15th overall with a mark of 25:38.
Richmond’s other two competitors were junior Luke Gilliam (29:19) and senior Jaxon Chavis (37:32).
Mendez 3rd overall in girls’ race
Mendez, who has been the pace-setter for the Lady Raiders since her freshman season, started her final campaign the same way.
With a time of 22:05, Mendez placed third overall in a field of 28 runners. She notched three points for the Lady Raiders and was 95 seconds behind the leader.
Registering times to record ninth and 10th-place points were seniors Samantha Barnes and Mascha Theijs. Barnes clocked in at 25:19 and Theijs, a foreign exchange student from Germany, ran 26:17 in her debut.
Senior captain Alivia Webb was next to collect points for the Lady Raiders, finishing her final first race in 28:11. Sophomore Dayana Franco was Richmond’s final runner to record points, posting a time of 29:23. Webb and Franco were 11th and 12th place, respectively.
Junior Jada Scott ran the race in 30:53 in her first high school race and sophomore Madyson Cloninger rounded out the team with a mark of 34:55.
Richmond’s cross country teams will host the first of their two meets Tuesday at Hinson Lake. The boys’ race will start at 5 p.m., followed by the girls’ race at 5:30 p.m.
