Bryson City – Cross-country teams from the Smoky Mountain Conference headed to Swain County for the conference’s annual championship meet Saturday.
It was a good day for Cherokee County cross-country runners, who nearly swept the top five in the boys race. Andrews boys claimed the title of Smoky Mountain Conference champions, as they had three in the top four.
The Andrews boys had a team score of 31 points, beating second-place Robbinsville by 12 points. Hiwassee Dam came in fourth place with 92 points. Murphy and Tri-County Early College had runners in the meet, but not the five needed for a team score.
Winning the boys race was Oscar Page of Hiwassee Dam, who has yet to lose a race this season. Page had a time of 16:30.98.
Seven seconds later, the top three Andrews boys runners finished. Levi Clark crossed the finish line in second place with a time of 16:37.52. Behind him in third place was Gabe Clark with a time of 16:37.61. A fraction of a second later, Elliott Salinas crossed the line in fourth with a time of 16:37.62.
Andrews’ fourth runner, Myca Mustin, came in eighth place with a time of 17:24.33. Rounding out the top 10 was Maverick Hawley of Hiwassee Dam in 10th with a time of 17:35.51.
Jayce Donaldson of Andrews rounded out the Wildcats’ top five with a 15th-place finish in the race.
Also scoring for Hiwassee Dam were Xavier Johnson in 24th, Travis Allen in 28th and Jonah Dockery in 43rd.
Murphy’s highest finisher was Josiah Niblea in 32nd place. Also running for the Bulldogs were David Hickey in 40th and Reyden Galarza in 41st.
Running for Tri-County Early College were Mason Smith in 35th, Daniel Bickham in 36th, Anthony DeSilva in 37th and Leo Henningfeld in 48th.
In the varsity girls conference championship, Tri-County came in second place with a team score of 54 points. The Lady Jaguars were led by Fern Crayton, who finished in third place with a time of 19:42.90.
Also scoring for Tri-County were Sophia Smith in 13th place, Bryanna Jaime in 16th, Catherine Gonzalez in 19th and Jasmine Tran in 20th.
Murphy and Hiwassee Dam had girls runners in the race, but they did not have the five needed for a team score.
Leading the Lady Bulldogs was Anna Leatherwood, who finished in 24th place. Hadley Rider finished in 28th and Emory Ricks came in 29th.
For Hiwassee Dam, Ashlin Anderson and Avery Freemon finished in 26th and 27th, respectively.
Teams in the Smoky Mountain Conference will head to Mill Spring for the regional meets Saturday. Both the 1A West and 2A West regional meets will be held at the Tryon International Equestrian Center.
Murphy will compete in the 2A West Regional. The boys run at 11:20 a.m., while the girls run at 11:50 p.m.
Andrews, Hiwassee Dam and Tri-County will compete in the 1A West Regional. The boys start at 1:30 p.m., while the girls run at 2 p.m.