Hayesville – It was a big varsity cross-country meet for Cherokee County athletes as Oscar Page of Hiwassee Dam earned his second straight boys 5K win, as well as the Andrews boys varsity team getting the win in their season debut.
With 35 points and four of their five scoring runners in the top 10, Andrews boys secured the win in their first meet of the season on Aug. 27.
Hiwassee Dam, Murphy and Nantahala boys also placed in the meet. Hiwassee Dam came in third place with 63 points, Murphy came in sixth with 143 points and Nantahala came in eighth with 214 points.
For the girls teams, none of the local teams had five runners in the meet, meaning they did not qualify for a team score at the Hayesville meet.
Boys
With a time of 16:18.1, Page crossed the finish line in first place for his second straight win this season. His time was 49 seconds faster than his time at the Tri-County Early College meet on Aug. 23.
Over one minute later, Levi Clark and Elliott Salinas of Andrews crossed the finish line in second and third place, respectively.
Coming in sixth was Maverick Hawley of Hiwassee Dam with a time of 17:59.42.
Closing out the top finishers were Gabe Clark, Myca Mustin and Jayce Donaldson of Andrews coming in ninth, 10th and 11th, respectively.
Travis Allen of Hiwassee Dam came in 14th, Braden Edwards of Murphy came in 16th and Luke Clark of Andrews came in 18th.
Rounding out the top-20 was Abel Penland of Hiwassee Dam in 20th place.
The other scoring runner for Hiwassee Dam was Xavier Johnson, who came in 22nd place with a time of 20:07.94.
The other scoring runners for Murphy were David Hickey in 28th, Josiah Niblea in 29th, Cruz Yarbro in 32nd and Reyden Galarza in 39th.
Nantahala’s scoring runners were Cole McCoy in 36th place, Landon Neal in 38th, Jameson Grchan in 48th, Hunter Bryant in 59th and Fernando Trejo in 60th.
Tri-County Early College did not have any boys runners compete in the meet.
Girls
The highest finisher from Cherokee County was Brooklyn Hyde of Hiwassee Dam, who came in 14th place with a time of 26:12.81 during her season debut.
Just behind her was Avery Freemon of Hiwassee Dam in 15th with a time of 26:17.52. Freemon’s time was 4:18 faster than her time at the Tri-County Early College meet on Aug. 23.
Murphy’s highest finisher was Anna Leatherwood in 19th place. Also from Murphy, Emory Rickys came in 22nd place and Hadley Rider came in 29th.
All three Murphy girls runners had better times at the Hayesville meet than they did at the Tri-County Early College meet on Aug. 23.
Andrews, Tri-County Early College and Nantahala did not have any girls runners in the varsity meet.
Up next
Cross-country teams in the Smoky Mountain Conference will head to Cherokee today for their next meet.
At press time Tuesday morning, Andrews, Hiwassee Dam, Murphy, Nantahala and Tri-County Early College, as well as teams from the SMC, plan on being at the meet.