Hiwassee Dam gets first win of season, plus full season preview
Hayesville – Cherokee County teams had a good showing at the first Smoky Mountain Conference meet of the season on Aug. 21, including Ethan Russell of Hiwassee Dam winning the boys 5K and Fern Crayton of Tri-County Early College placing second in the girls 5K.
As the sun began to set on the sports fields at the Clay County Recreation Center, the boys 5K race was set to kick off first. From the gun, Russell and Cherokee’s Ogana Swimmer were neck and neck.
Through the first mile, they began to separate from the pack of the other 49 conference runners. Russell and Swimmer kept pace with each other for the 3.1-mile, three-loop course. Coming down the final stretch, they both kicked, but Russell was able to edge out Swimmer and cross the line first. Russell had a time of 16:38.86, while Swimmer’s was 16:39.64.
Hiwassee Dam’s Oscar Page also separated himself from the pack and crossed the finish line a few seconds behind Russell and Swimmer to secure third place in 17:08.70. It would be more than a minute before another runner crossed the finish line.
Maverick Hawley of Hiwassee Dam finished in eighth place with a time of 18:41.30, while Tri-County’s Landan Spies finished in 10th with a time of 19:37.93. Murphy’s highest boys finisher was Cruz Yarbro, who came in 13th with a time of 20:13.21.
For the boys team scores, Hiwassee Dam came in first with 43 points, Murphy came in third with 92 points and Tri-County came in sixth with 136 points. In cross country, the top five runners count toward the team’s points with the team with the fewest points winning. If a team has less than five runners, they do not get a team score.
On the girls side, Crayton finished in second place with a time of 20:56.11. Cherokee’s Dvdaya Swimmer started strong and maintained a strong pace the entire race, with Crayton behind her.
Murphy’s Kennedy White and Corinne Cotton finished a few minutes behind in sixth and seventh places, respectively. White had a time of 22:52.84, with Cotton at 23:25.91. Hiwassee Dam’s highest finisher was Avery Freemon in 20th place with Maria Page, also from Hiwassee Dam, behind her in 21st.
Murphy was the only Cherokee County team to score points because of team size. The Lady Bulldogs finished in second place with 46 points.
Looking ahead
With their first meet under their belts, each team will look to improve upon their initial results from the first meet in Hayesville heading into the rest of the season.
Andrews
The Wildcats will look to start in good form. Junior O’Malley Salinas will look to maintain good results like last year, when he was consistently in the front of the pack. Salinas finished last season with a seventh-place finish in the 1A state championship.
Myca Mustin, also a junior, will look to continue his strong races from last season. There are two girls on the team, Alani Davis and Khloe Mayfield.
The Wildcats high school team did not run at the meet in Hayesville, but will look to kick off their season today at Tri-County Early College.
Hiwassee Dam
The Eagles kicked off their season with a first-place finish from one of the fastest runners in 1A in the state in Russell. Russell, who finished in sixth at last year’s 1A state championship meet, will look to continue his success again this season. He was also the only Hiwassee Dam runner to qualify for state last year.
Other boys to watch this season are Oscar Page, Maverick Hawley, Xavier Johnson and Abel Penland, who helped the team win the points standings in the first meet.
On the girls side, Avery Freemon and Maria Page are the only two female runners for the Eagles’ cross-country team so far this season. They had 20th and 21st place finishes in the first meet, respectively.
Those runners will be ones to watch as they improve and work their way up the conference standings.
Murphy
Last year, the Murphy cross-country team was in a rebuilding year, but first-year head coach Terry Jones thinks there may be some improvement this year. Jones has been an assistant coach for the past two years, taking over as the head man after Davis Bryant resigned.
The good news for Jones is that the Middle School girls team won the conference last year and that help will be there this year. Jones said, “My high school team is pretty young this year with five sophomores and two seniors this year on the girls’ team.”
The girls will be led by the two seniors, Corrine Cotton and Alyssa Trantham. A sophomore, Kennedy White, will give the Lady Dog runners a boost as well. She won the conference Runner of the Year and won the individual conference title in the 2022 middle school division.
The boys’ team is just the opposite. The Murphy boys team will consist of 10 members, including five seniors. Jones says of the boys, “I am looking for some big things out of them. I have some good team leaders on that team.”
Senior Jake Miller and sophomore Cruz Yarbro will be leaders on the boys team.
Tri-County Early College
The Jaguars host a home meet today and will look to build on last season, continuing their upward progression.
Fern Crayton ended last season with a 10th-place finish in the 1A state championship. She was the only Tri-County Early College runner to make the state championship meet a year ago. Crayton kicked off this season with a second-place finish.
Allison Hernandez and Ernestina Trigueros will be runners to watch this season, along with Crayton, as they continue to improve.
On the boys side, Landon Spies will look to improve on his 10th place finish in the first meet of the season. Along with Spies, William Boyd, Nathan Downs and Silas Maheux will be runners to watch.
2024 Smoky Mountain cross-country schedule
The second meet of the season is today, when Tri-County hosts at the Cherokee County School of Innovation & Technology in Peachtree on a new course that will test runners. The next meet – on Saturday, Sept. 14 – will be at Murphy High School at Gentry Field. The high school boys start at 9 a.m., while the high school girls start at 9:30 a.m.
Following that meet, they will head to Swain County for the Keith Payne Memorial Invitational at Kituwah Mound on Saturday, Sept. 21. High school runners will start around 10 a.m.
They will then head to Hiwassee Dam on Wednesday, Sept. 25. The meet will be held at McNabb Farm, with high school running at 5 p.m.
To close out the regular season, runners will head to Robbinsville High School on Wednesday, Oct. 2. High school will run at 5 p.m. On Saturday, Oct. 12, Swain will host the Smoky Mountain Conference Championship.
The 1A West Regional Championship is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 26. Qualifiers will then head to the 1A state championship Saturday, Nov. 2.