FAYETTEVILLE — Richmond Senior High School’s boys’ and girls’ cross country teams’ trek toward regionals was tested Tuesday with another challenging Sandhills Athletic Conference meet at Jack Britt High School.
Competing against the host Buccaneers, Pinecrest and Scotland high schools, the Lady Raiders would finish third overall (66 points), while their Raider counterparts finished fourth (109 points). Pinecrest would sweep the competition for the second time in as many races as Richmond has raced them this fall, with the boys earning 17 points and the girls having 27 points.
Although Richmond’s teams didn’t place as high as they may have wanted to, several runners posted season-best times. For head coach Jessica Covington’s Lady Raiders, senior Airel Brown led the way with a third-place finish and a time of 22:08, a week after missing a race due to illness. She was just 22 seconds behind second-place finisher Madison Williams (Scotland).
Sophomore Maylyn Wallace continued to shatter her personal records, as the first-year runner set a new best time of 23:19 and 11th place, which was 59 seconds better than her previous best. Since the first meet of the season, Wallace has taken a total of 6:57 off her 3.2-mile race time, and has emerged as the Lady Raiders’ No. 2 runner behind Brown.
The Lady Raiders’ remaining top five runners would cross the finish line in 16th, 17th and 19th place. Freshman Sheccid Heaton took 16th with a time of 24:55, followed by junior Zamiya McInnis, whose mark of 25:09 was a season-best for her. Rounding out for the Lady Raiders was freshman Rylie Bohman, who also posted a new personal best with a time of 25:23.
Also running for Richmond and finishing in the top seven on the Lady Raiders’ team were senior Abby Calhoun (20th. 25:24) and senior Analee Wyand (23rd, 25:50). Those two times help offset some of Scotland’s runners, giving the Lady Raiders the third-place finish,
For the boys’ team, junior Carson Jordan finally broke the 19-minute mark, a goal he’s been after all season. Jordan would finish first for the Raiders, and 11th overall, with a time of 18:47. Finding his stride at Jack Britt, Jordan took 28 seconds off his 5K time from his previous best time of the season at Hinson Lake in Rockingham.
Down the stretch, Jordan nearly beat Pinecrest’s Joseph VanCleave, who edged his Raider opponent by just 0.29 seconds. Jordan was just 17 seconds from a top-seven finish in a field of 69 runners.
Junior Joshua Wallace would be the second Raider to finish, placing 23rd overall with a time of 21:41, which was 60 seconds faster than his previous best time of the season. He was followed by fellow junior Will Thompson, who placed 24th (22:58), just a tick off his personal record he set last week.
Closing out the field of runners for the boys were freshman Kodie Simmons (25th, 23:38), senior Devon Tillman (26th, 24:50) and freshman Ethan McDonald (27th, 26:06). Simmons’ time was nearly five and a half minutes faster than his last outing, as the rookie runner also continues to improve for the Raiders.
Both Richmond teams will compete in their final regular-season meet at Pinecrest next Tuesday, starting at 5 p.m. The Raiders and Lady Raiders will compete against Pinecrest, Jack Britt and Purnell Swett in one final warmup to the SAC championship run on Oct. 22.
