WCA teams favored as it hosts county championships

Don’t expect any individual marks to fall Monday in the 17 ^th Wilson County Cross-Country Championships at Wilson Christian Academy but both races should be fairly competitive.

Gone are 2023 county champions Lin Scott of WCA and Erin Pope of Fike. Both set meet records at last year’s county championship and now are running for their respective NCAA Division I programs at Charleston Southern and East Carolina, respectively. Also running at the Div. I level is 2024 WCA graduate Brett Walston, who also broke the meet record last year, now at Campbell University.

However, the field this year has five each of the top 10 girls and boys finishers at last year’s county meet. The top three girls to cross the finish line behind Pope a year ago — Wilson Christian’s Stevie Cressionnie, Hunt’s Brooklyn Thoms and Fike’s Tierney Powers — are all back as well as as Fike’s Gracie Mercer and Beddingfield’s Rebecca Balkcum. If Sallie B. Howard School participates, count Guillermina Reyes, fifth last year, among the contenders as well.

The meet is open to all Wilson County cross-country teams but it was unclear Sunday night if Community Christian, Greenfield or Sallie B. Howard would compete.

Cressionnie set a personal record of 21 minutes, 40 seconds at the beginning of this season while Thoms has been among the top runners in the 3-A Quad County Conference all season. In addition, Hunt sophomores Ava Johnson and Hanna Roberts and freshmen Cassie Bunn and Kylie Fassnacht, Fike junior Kate Kopka and Wilson Christian’s Mireici Hicks are all-county contenders.

With Scott and fellow current NCAA Division I runner Brett Walston graduated from Wilson Christian, junior Conner Ford is the heir apparent to the Chargers county distance mini-dynasty. Ford, who won the North Carolina Christian School Championship as an eighth grader in 2021, also set a PR at the Early Bird Challenge at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary in August with a 17:05.

Ford placed fourth at the county championship in 2023 while WCA senior twins Alexander and Samuel Herndon were sixth and seventh. Eighth grader Aaron Hicks looms as a potential top-5 finisher as well for the Chargers.

Hunt has McLane Sharp back from the 2023 top 10 while Christian Hall, junior Mason Gesell and freshman Landen Johnson have set the pace for the Warriors this season. Senior Elijah Twiss and junior Riley Crysell lead Fike.

Hunt head coach Rusty Boyette leaned toward Wilson Christian as the favorite in both meets with the top time in each as well as the home-course advantage. WCA head coach and program founder Dwight Vanderboegh worked hard to protect the course over the recent heavy rains so it would be in good shape, not only for the Wilson County Championship but also the By the Moon’s Light night race Tuesday and the massive Pumpkin Run on Friday.

Wilson Christian has won three straight county boys championships while Fike is seeking its fifth straight girls crown.

“It all kind of depends on who shows up and how they want to run,” Boyette said.

NEXT LEVEL RUNNING

Pope, Scott and Walston all ran at the Pirate Cross-Country Invitational that was hosted by ECU on Friday at Lake Kristi in Greenville. Pope finished sixth out of 209 runners in the 6K race with a time of 21:49.6. The only other freshman to finish ahead of her was winner Peninah Mutisya of Hampton in 20:54.4.

However, that only helped ECU to an 11th-place finish out of 20 teams.

Scott ran the 8K course in 25:25.3 for his Charleston Southern team that finished fourth out of 20. Scott placed 80 ^th , out of the scoring but was fifth overall in Charleston Southern’s Buccaneer Open 6K in August.

Walston placed 132 ^nd in 26:14.4 for Campbell as it ranked 17 ^th among men’s teams at the Pirate Invitational. Walston was ninth as the Camels won the Wilmington Beach Blast 5K to start the season.

In the Ben Snelling Cancer Classic meet hosted by Louisburg College on Friday, freshman and Hunt High product Trey Lamm was fifth overall to help the Hurricanes win the three-team meet against Barton College and the ECU club team. Lamm finished the 8K course at V.E. & Lydia Owens Park in 29:16.2, just ahead of Barton freshman and Beddingfield graduate Nolan Gamwell in sixth place in 29:30.1.

At last year’s Wilson County Championship, Gamwell was third behind Scott and Walston while Lamm took fifth.

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