Andrews boys win, Tri-County Early College girls finish 2nd
Murphy – Cross-country teams from the Smoky Mountain Conference and nearby area came to Murphy High School for a varsity and middle school cross-country meet in cool but warming weather Saturday morning.
Oscar Page of Hiwassee Dam remains undefeated, earning the race win Saturday with a time of 16:40.62. Two Andrews runners were just behind him, as Levi Clark came in second place and Elliott Salinas finished third at times of 17:01.25 and 17:11.13, respectively.
Andrews’ Gabe Clark came in seventh place with a time of 17:34.13, while Myca Mustin came in ninth at 18:07.02.
Rounding out the top 10 was Hiwassee Dam’s Maverick Hawley with a time of 18:09.38. Just outside the top 10 was Andrews’ Jayce Donaldson in 11th place with a time of 18:10.97.
Andrews got the team win with 32 points after four of the Wildcats’ five scoring runners placed in the top 10. Hiwassee Dam came in fourth place with 101 points; also scoring for the Eagles were Xavier Johnson in 23rd, Travis Allen in 25th and Jonah Dockery in 47th.
Murphy came in sixth place in team points with 166. Scoring for the Bulldogs were Braden Edwards in 18th, David Hickey in 36th, Cruz Yarbro in 41st, Josiah Niblea in 42nd and Reyden Galarza in 46th.
Tri-County Early College came in ninth with 223 points. Scoring for the Jaguars were Julian Arvizu in 44th, Mason Smith in 45th, Daniel Bickham in 49th, Leo Henningfeld in 54th and Anthony DeSilva in 63rd.
For the girls varsity runners, Tri-County was the only team to score team points, finishing second with 51. The Lady Jaguars were led by Fern Crayton, who came in third place with a time of 20:29.84 in another strong race finish.
Also scoring for Tri-County were Sophia Smith in 14th place, Bryanna Jaime in 18th, Jasmine Tran in 22nd, Joey Riddle in 31st and Genevieve Gelabert in 38th.
Hiwassee Dam and Murphy had two runners each in the meet.
For Hiwassee Dam, Avery Freemon came in 25th place and Ashlin Anderson came in 41st.
For Murphy, Anna Leatherwood came in 24th and Emory Ricks came in 28th.
The Smoky Mountain Conference cross-country teams will head to McNabb Farm in Hiwassee Dam today for the next meet. Middle school is scheduled to start at 4 p.m., while varsity is scheduled to begin around 5 p.m.
Following the meet in Hiwassee Dam, Smoky Mountain Conference and nearby teams will head to Robbinsville on Wednesday, Oct. 1, for the last regular-season meet before the conference championship.