Robbinsville – Oscar Page of Hiwassee Dam continued his varsity cross-country dominance by winning his sixth race this season.
In the final meet before the Smoky Mountain Conference championship, Page has won every SMC race that has been held so far in the 2025 season. Page secured his win with a time of 17:00.13, 53 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.
Along with page, Hiwassee Dam’s Maverick Hawley in fifth place was the only Cherokee County runners in the top 10 of the boys race. Just outside of the top 10 was Braden Edwards of Murphy in 11th and Xavier Johnson of Hiwassee Dam in 13th.
Hiwassee Dam finished in third place in boys team points with 50 points. Nantahala boys came in fifth place with 145 points. Scoring for Hiwassee Dam’s boys also were Jonah Dockery in 19th and Brayden Morrow in 20th.
Also running for the Eagles were Abel Penland in 23rd, Avery Taylor in 37th. Brandon Bishop in 38th and Brock Hyde in 43rd.
The five scoring boys runners for Nantahala were Samuel Bateman in 28th, Cole McCoy in 34th, Hunter Bryant in 47th, Pierce Phillips in 49th and Landon Neal in 53rd.
Also running for Nantahala was Jameson Grchan in 54th, Fernando Trejo in 55th, Zac Bryant in 57th and Mathew Pendergrass in 58th.
Along with Edwards, also running in the boys race for Murphy was Josiah Niblea in 24th, David Hickey in 30th and Reyden Galarza in 33rd.
Carolina Mountain XC, a homeschool cross-country team based in Cherokee County, also had boys run in the varsity race.
Their highest finisher was Nathan Wilson in 29th place. Also running for them was Miles Pash in 41st and Asa Burr in 50th.
Tri-County Early College had one boy run in the race. Anthony DeSilva finished in 42nd place.
In the girls race, Fern Crayton of Tri-County Early College came in second place with a time of 20:39.18. She was the only Cherokee County girls runner in the top 10.
Out of the two scoring teams in the girls race, Tri-County Early College came in second place with 44 points. Murphy, Hiwassee Dam and Carolina Mountain XC had runners in the race, but did not score team points.
Also scoring for Tri-County was Sophia Smith in 15th, Bryanna Jaime in 19th, Catherine Gonzalez in 25th and Jamine Tran in 29th. Also running for Tri-County was Joey Riddle in 32nd, Genevieve Gelabert in 28th and Emma Watson in 29th.
Murphy’s three girls runners were led by Anna Leatherwood who finished in 28th place. Also runner for Murphy was Hadley Rider in 31st and Emory Ricks in 34th.
Leah Taylor finished in 21st, and Avery Freemon came in 23rd, as Hiwassee Dam’s only two girls runners. For Carolina Mountain XC, Rebecca Carver came in 14th, Rachel Carver came in 16th and Eliana Meiners came in 30th.
The next meet for runners in the Smoky Mountain Conference is Saturday, Oct. 18, when they head to Bryson City for the SMC championship hosted by Swain County. Girls are set to begin at 9 a.m., while boys will run at about 9:30 a.m.