Tri-County senior runner wins two big meets

    Peachtree – At least for this week, Sydney Bolyard is the undisputed running queen of western North Carolina.
    Bolyard finished first among 104 runners in the Watermelon Run in Cullowhee on Sept. 4, and she followed that up with a first-place finish in the Bulldog Open on Saturday. In that race, she finished 23 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor.
    The Watermelon Run – so named because the runners enjoy the tasty fruit after exerting themselves in the late summer heat – has runners from much larger schools, making the win even sweeter for the Tri-County Early College High School senior, who has been a standout runner for the Jaguars during her high school career.
    Bolyard started running the summer before her freshman year after leaving the The Learning Center charter school, which did not have any sports at the time.
    “I used to play soccer, then one year my dad said ‘You can try running or play soccer if you want,’ and I ended up liking it,” she said. “I was kind of thrown into it, but I’ve been doing it ever since.”
    Bolyard could be a contender this fall at the state meet.
    “We have a lot of great competition this year,” she said. “We are trying to work on our girls team and get the team to state too, but there are a lot of good teams out there.
    “I’m excited, though. I’m having a lot of fun.”