Photo by Erik Perel
Another corps of young runners packed the field for the Cedar Ridge cross country team to kick off the season.
Freshman Peyton Shaw, in her first high school meet, led the Red Wolves among a field of 183 runners at the Pace Yourself Early Bird Challenge at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary on Saturday morning. Shaw finished 31st overall with a time of 21:28.84, which propelled Cedar Ridge to a seventh place finish among 17 teams. The Cedar Ridge women’s team, which won the 5A Central Regional championship last year, registered 179 points. It was the highest total among non-Wake County schools, aside from IMG Academy. Green Hope won the team championship with 70 points.
Cedar Ridge’s Isabella Taylor-Hall finished 32 overall (21:30.99) while sophomore Lily Mallia came in 37th. Junior Ila Diaz, who was a co-Captain last year as a sophomore, came in 38th (21:47.79). Ayla Henry, who finished 2nd in the Central Regional in the 800 meters last spring, came in 51st. Elaina Sobus came in 73rd (23:16.72) while Kate Finnegan finished 76th to kick off her senior season.
Senior Landin Tillet finished highest for Cedar Ridge in the men’s meet. Tillet came in 16th overall at 16:58.64. Daniel Dyreng, whose sister Naomi won regional championships at Cedar Ridge in track & field, finished 124th. Owen Perel (20:50), Xavi Castrejon (21:12), Edward Horton (21:47), Bailey Ritter (22:22) and Paul Ngunjiri (22:26) also competed for the Red Wolves.
Cedar Ridge finished 16th in the team standings out of 21 teams. The Red Wolves won the Big 7 Conference championship last year.
While they didn’t compete as a team, Eno River Academy had several competitors in the men’s meet. Junior Alden Adamson finished 104th at 19:04.05. Sophomore Gabriel Nagel finished 111th at 19:11.67, while sophomore Nicholas Nagel finished 112th at 19:11.77. Caelan Jones finished 163rd at 20:26.95.
The men’s event had 313 runners. IMG Academy won the men’s team event with 54 points. Cary Academy finished second with 102 points.
