Maroon Devils face adversity at Hendersonville cross country event

Larry Griffin

lgriffin@thesmokymountaintimes.com

At the WNC Cross Country Carnival, held Saturday, Aug. 26 in Hendersonville, Swain County got ninth place in the boys’ championship 5K.

Coach Keith Payne said the event took place on “a course they knew to be the most demanding course they would run all year.”

That race saw Carl Baird leading the team through the first two miles, with Connor Brown, Kane Jones, Abhi Patel, Connor Lambert, Ross Clapsaddle (freshman), and Cory Wolf behind him in that order.

Brown and Lambert began moving up after the two-mile mark and helped lead the team to their finish in the race. Brown got done first with his new personal best for the course, 17:23.

Then came the boys’ invitational race, which Payne also said was “difficult” and saw Derek Gunter placing at 192, with a time of 21:06, and Port Sontheimer, finishing at 248 with a time of 22:40. Payne said the two freshmen students did the best they could without seniors in the race alongside them.

“They kind of had to figure things out for themselves between mile markers.  The coaches were there at the mile, 2-mile, and right before the 3-mile mark to give them tips and strategy notes, but these two showed great grit in their race,” he said by email.

The girls’ team came into the event with some difficulties – two of the top seven runners on the team were nursing injuries, and a third injured themselves on the course. So, there were only six Lady Devils runners who could compete. Annie Lewis took control of the race early, and she was followed by Angel Lomelli, Marden Harvey, Lily Bjerkness, Audrey Monteith and freshman Carden Oetting. Payne said Oetting had never run in a 5K before. She wasn’t even scheduled to run in the championship race.

Lewis finished eighth overall in that race with a time of 20:23, and Angel finished 57th with 22:55.

Payne said that cross country was a different sort of game than most sports – with no time-outs, halftime or other such things, it can be tough.

“Once the race starts it only ends in one crossing the finish line or when the athlete has pushed their body to the reaches of that day and the athlete has no choice but to stop,” he said. “It is both beautiful and brutal. You don’t have to be the first to cross the finish line to have a personal victory, and this weekend’s race proved that very point.”