Mill Spring – It was another great race for the Andrews’ boys varsity cross country team, as well as Hiwassee Dam’s Oscar Page.
Page took the top spot after a close race to win the 1A West Regional cross-country meet Saturday.
With 44 points, the Andrews boys team took the top spot in team points at the 1A West Regional meet to be crowned champions. Also in the boys race, Hiwassee Dam finished in fifth place in team points, while Tri-County Early College came in seventh.
In the girls race at the 1A West meet, Tri-County Early College came in second place. They were led by Fern Crayton, who came in second overall.
A total of 55 boys cross-country runners from the 1A West region traveled to Tryon International Equestrian Center on Saturday to compete in the regional meet.
Coming out on top was Page, who narrowly beat out Isaac Magid of Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy. Page had a time of 16:59.1, while Magid had a time of 16:59.5.
Just behind them were two Andrews runners, as Levi Clark came in third with a time of 17:03.5 and Elliott Salinas came in fourth with a time of 17:03.7. Rounding out Cherokee County runners in the top 10 was Gabe Clark of Andrews in eighth place with a time of 17:25.6.
Also scoring for the Wildcats en route to their regional championship was Myca Mustin in 15th place and Jayce Donaldson in 16th.
Scoring for Hiwassee Dam, along with Page, were Maverick Hawley in 17th place, Xavier Johnson in 28th, Travis Allen in 29th and Brayden Morrow in 34th.
Scoring for Tri-County were Connor Arrowood in 32nd place, Mason Smith in 37th, Anthony DaSilva in 39th, Daniel Bickham in 42nd and Joshua Bickham in 45th.
In the girls race, Tri-County was the only Cherokee County team to score team points. The Jaguars had a 54-point race to secure second place in the region.
Leading them was Crayton, who finished in second place with a time of 20:38.3. Also scoring for Tri-County was Sophia Smith in 14th place, Bryanna Jaime in 17th, Catherine Gonzalez in 18th and Jasmine Tran in 21st.
Hiwassee Dam’s Avery Freemon came in 25th place, while Ashlin Anderson came in 28th for the Lady Eagles’ only runners.
The 2A West Regional meet was also held Saturday in the same location. Anna Leatherwood of Murphy was the only Cherokee County athlete to run, coming in 66th place in the girls race with a time of 27:09.6.
Team will shift their focus to the state championship meet. The 1A and 2A classes will run Friday at Ivey Redmon Sports Complex in Kernersville.
State qualifiers from Andrews are Gabe Clark, Levi Clark, Luke Clark, Jayce Donaldson, Ethan Garrett, Myca Mustin and Elliott Salinas.
Qualifiers from Hiwassee Dam are Travis Allen, Jonah Dockery, Maverick Hawley, Xavier Johnson, Brayden Morrow, Oscar Page and Avery Taylor.
Girls qualifiers from Tri-County are Fern Crayton, Genevieve Gelabert, Catherine Gonzalez, Bryanna Jaime, Joey Riddle, Sophia Smith and Jasmine Tran. Conner Arrowood and Mason Smith qualified for the boys for Tri-County.
In the 2A classification, Murphy did not have any state championship qualifiers.