Murphy girls get 2nd in points, Andrews’ Salinas gets 1st win for boys
Cherokee – O’Malley Salinas of Andrews made his cross-country season debut in the best way possible with a win on Aug. 28.
Salinas crossed the finish line of the 5K course with a time of 16:37.26. Ethan Russell of Hiwassee Dam came in 11 seconds later to secure second place. Hiwassee Dam freshman Oscar Page was just behind Russell to finish third.
On the girls side, Fern Crayton of Tri-County Early College got her third straight second-place finish with a time of 21:27.03.
The Hiwassee Dam boys cross-country team got its third win in as many meets on Sept. 4 in Cherokee. Russell and Page led the team, with Maverick Hawley finishing eighth, Abel Penland 14th and Xavier Johnson 18th to earn 39 points to win the meet in team points for the boys. The Eagles beat Hayesville’s boys by 20 points.
Murphy’s boys scored 84 points in the meet to finish in third place. Braden Edwards finished 10th, Cruz Yarbro 11th, Jake Miller 21st, Jaden Rice 27th and Heath Chastain 28th for the Bulldogs’ scoring runners.
Andrews boys had three runners, so they did not score any points because a team needs five runners to earn points. Along with Salinas in first place, Myca Mustin finished ninth and Ethan Garrett finished 41st.
Nantahala’s boys also made their season debut, earning 167 points and finishing sixth. Cole McCoy finished 29th, Chase McMahan finished 37th, Jameson Grchan finished 39th, Hunter Bryant finished 50th and Fernando Trejo finished 53rd to round out their scoring runners.
On the girls side, Murphy finished in second place in the team points with 55 and Tri-County finished in fourth with 76 points.
Kennedy White led the Lady Bulldogs’ cross-county team with a sixth-place finish, which was her third straight top 10. Also earning points for the Lady Dogs was Corinne Cotton finishing 10th, Alyssa Trantham 16th, Marley Blackwell 18th and Charlie Stalcup 19th.
For Tri-County, Crayton had another strong race with her second-place finish. Allison Hernandez finished 20th, Ernestina Trigueros 22nd, Bryanna Jaime 25th and Kadeesha Sudderth 28th to round out its scoring runners.
Andrews and Hiwassee Dam had girls run, but both teams did not have enough to score team points. Khloe Mayfield of Andrews finished 14th, while Maria Page and Avery Freemon of Hiwassee Dam finished 21st and 24th, respectively.
The next conference meet is Saturday at Murphy High School. Middle school start at 8 a.m., with high school to follow.