Catawba Ridge and Nation Ford opened their cross country seasons Saturday at the South Mecklenburg Cross Country Invitational, running the Larry McAfee Course at McAlpine Park in Charlotte alongside more than 40 schools from the Carolinas.
Nation Ford boys run in a tight group
Nation Ford placed fifth of 20 teams in the boys Touranjoe race with 171 points, moving five scorers across the line inside 45 seconds. Sparsh Vaghani led the group in 23rd at 17 minutes, 0.40 seconds, followed by Robert Saddler in 26th at 17:06.10 and Alex Royall in 27th at 17:06.60. Eighth grader Richard Bailey took 41st at 17:22.80 and Alejandro Luna closed the scoring in 54th at 17:44.80. Green Hope won the race with 128 points.
Catawba Ridge finished eighth in the same race with 198 points, tied with Lake Norman and losing the tiebreaker. Ryan Pierson paced the Copperheads in 12th at 16:30.00, with Lincoln Smith three places back at 16:33.90 and Tyler Merrigan 29th at 17:12.50.
Copperheads take second in the JV race
Catawba Ridge turned in the district’s strongest team result of the day in the boys JV race, finishing second of 29 teams with 140 points behind Green Hope. Mason Greear led the group in ninth at 18:55.75, and Kushal Yedugani and Luke Sivil followed in 23rd and 25th. Nation Ford placed ninth in that race with 244 points.
Falcons ninth in girls Touranjoe
Karson Woodring led Nation Ford in 29th at 20:17.87, with Haley Garcia 32nd at 20:27.23 and Eva Mabey 40th at 20:40.55. The Falcons scored 220 points for ninth of 16 teams. North Lincoln won with 30.
Olivia Gillespie was the top Catawba Ridge girl in 39th at 20:38.10. The Copperheads placed 13th with 343 points.
Nation Ford’s girls JV squad finished third with 122 points, led by Megan McGovern in seventh at 23:01.27 and Brooklyn Cox in eighth at 23:07.71. Catawba Ridge was 13th in that race.
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Thomas Hyslip lives in Tega Cay with his wife and daughter. After 27 years in the U.S. Army and Federal Law Enforcement, he retired to pursue his passion for teaching. Tom is now an Assistant Professor of Instruction at the University of South Florida. In 2 short years he has won 10 awards from the South Carolina Press Association, including first place in column writing, education beat reporting and best podcast.
