Richmond XC teams to prep for regionals after conference championship race

LAURINBURG — The Richmond Senior High School boys’ and girls’ cross country teams chased after a potential conference title during Tuesday’s meet.

The latest edition of the Sandhills Athletic Conference championship didn’t go in favor of the Raiders or Lady Raiders, but several of the program’s runners posted personal-best times.

Running the 3.0-mile race at Dragon Park, the Lady Raiders placed fourth out of five qualifying teams, while the Raiders brought up the back of the field in sixth place.

“It wasn’t the outcome we wanted today for either team, but that doesn’t mean our season wasn’t a success,” co-head coach Ashleigh Buie said. “We compete in a very strong conference with a lot of good runners, which makes winning a conference title difficult.

“Our kids gave it their all and we appreciate their effort,” she added. “We are proud of how they never gave up all season and how they were competitive today against some of the best runners in the state.”

Lady Raiders take fifth at SAC championship

The Lady Raiders recorded 112 points during Tuesday’s conference title meet. Pinecrest High School won the championship with 19 points.

Senior Mariana Mendez ran her final regular-season meet and finished 16th overall with a time of 24:23.21.

Fellow senior Samantha Barnes also competed for the final time against SAC opponents. She crossed the finish line in 24:54.64, placing her 19th overall.

Two of Richmond’s next three finishers each notched a new personal record time — senior Mascha Theijs and sophomore Madyson Cloninger.

Theijs, a foreign exchange student from Germany, shaved 0.25 seconds off her previous fastest race for her new PR. She clocked in at 26:13.55 and 23rd place. Cloninger raced to a time of 29:29.89, which was 28th overall, besting her previous record by 2:33 from last season.

Between Theijs and Cloninger, senior Alivia Webb recorded points with a 26th-place finish. Her time was 28:16.55 in her final regular-season race, which was Webb’s second-fastest time this season.

Rounding out the Lady Raiders’ efforts were sophomore Makensey Puckett (31:04.90), who had a new PR, and junior Jada Scott (31:39:20).

The other teams that finished in second, third and fifth place were Union Pines (44 points), Hoke County (79 points) and Southern Lee (141 points) high schools, respectively.

Raiders place sixth in championship run

The Raiders faced an equally difficult field Tuesday, placing sixth out of six qualifying teams with 152 points.

Pinecrest also won the boys’ race with 22 points, followed by Union Pines (39 points), Hoke County (82 points), Southern Lee (134 points) and Lee County High School (141 points).

Competing with five runners, the minimum required to place as a team, the Raiders were led by junior DJ Gainey. Continuing his impressive season, Gainey set a new PR of 20:37.93.

Gainey placed 20th overall and beat his previous fastest time which he set a week ago at Pinecrest (20:40.89).

Junior Jake Richardson and freshman Eliott Samuels were the next two Raiders to cross the finish line. Richardson (26th) ran the race in 23:02.44, his second-fastest race this year, and Samuels ended in 25:27.73, his third best race of his freshman year.

Richmond’s other two runners were junior Luke Gilliam and senior Jaxon Chavis. Gilliam was 35th overall (30:01.46) and Chavis recorded a time of 40:08.19 (36th overall).

“The next step for us is to prepare our top runners for regionals,” co-head coach Morgan Tedder shared. “We can take up to five runners for each team and we plan on doing that.

“Regionals is a great experience that gives our kids another chance to compete and represent Richmond,” she closed. “We’ve got about 10 days to prepare, so we’ll be looking to cut down our times before then.”

The NCHSAA 4A Mideast regional meet will be held Oct. 26 at Wakemed Soccer Park in Cary.