The Cedar Ridge and Orange cross country teams have been dominated by underclassmen all year, so why should the state championships be any different?
On Saturday, Orange was led by sophomore Ava Heffernan at the 3A State Championships, held at the Ivey Redmon Sports Complex in Kernersville. Heffernan finished 65th overall with a time of 20:28.48. Freshman Sascha Godfrey came in 67th, completing the race in 20:31.82.
Freshman Anne Morrell was the highest placer among the Cedar Ridge runners, finishing 78th at 20:45.98. Sophomore Ella Nissler wound up 91st with a time of 21:00.37. Cedar Ridge had seven runners competing overall: sophomore Allison Musty came in 115th (21:33.33), freshman Ariadna Solis finished 148th (22:30.54), Abby Averette 160th (22:59.60), senior Alexandria Wirth (23:17.22) and senior Noa Bearman (23:36.41)
Elise Wright of T.C. Roberson won the 3A girls individual championship, completing the 5,000 meter course in 18:03.56, ten seconds ahead of Chapel Hill’s Katherine Dokholyan, who captured the Big 8 Conference and Mideast Regional Championships.
Chapel Hill captured its third straight state championship with 62 points, ahead of Cuthbertson’s 71 points. Cedar Ridge finished 20th.
The Orange Cross Country team had seven runners place in its state championship meet. Junior Kyle Van Tubbergh finished 114th with at time of 17:40.08. Also finishing for Orange: junior Sam Rasinske came in 144th (18:05.65), senior Andrew Sollars 158th (18:13.81), senior Mitchell Askew 164th (18:25.07), sophomore Bennett Fleming 179th (18:43.65), sophomore Whitt Phillips 198th (19:27.24) and sophomore Josh Van Mater (20:15.05).
Mount Tabor’s Cameron Ponder won the individual state championship, setting a new course record time of 15:19.77. Ponder became the fourth individual state champion in Mt. Tabor cross country history.
Mount Tabor captured the 3A Men’s State Championship with 72 points, ahead of Weddington’s 110. Chapel Hill, the Big 8 Champions, finished third at 114. Orange came in 25th.