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The Davie cross country team continued its march through the postseason on Oct. 26 at the 4-A Midwest Regional at Kernersville’s Ivey Redmon Park.
Featuring 28 schools, the region included teams from the Metro, Greater Metro, Southern Carolina and Central Piedmont Conferences. As a result of a formula based on the number of teams participating, six each from the boys’ and girls’ races advanced to Saturday’s state championships.
The War Eagle boys finished in eighth place with 219 points as they trailed winner and defending state champion Marvin Ridge (56), Weddington (129), Reagan (133), Cuthbertson (134), Mt. Tabor (134), Reynolds (168) and West Forsyth (192). Reagan’s Tate Shore raced to the individual title in 15:38 for a three-second win over Marvin Ridge’s David Rivlin (15:41). Reynolds senior Cedar Nichols-Barnhart finished third (15:48) and was followed by Davie’s Thomas Essic, who nabbed fourth (15:50).
Marvin Ridge also won the girls’ race with 71 points to edge Cuthbertson (78) and Weddington (128). Reagan (144), West Forsyth (155) and Lake Norman (170) also advanced to the state meet.
The Davie girls finished 21st. Lake Norman’s Kasey Dingman took top honors individually with a time of 18:06.
For the Davie boys, Essic ran with the leaders for the first two miles before dropping back to fourth over the last half-mile. His top-10 finish garnered all-region honors and resulted in an automatic birth as an individual to the state race.
Ethan Lakey placed 30th in 16:50 and was followed by Brayden Kistner, whose time of 17:11 was good for 42nd and was a new personal record by six seconds. Jacob Steelman finished in 69th (17:45), Jackson Sulecki was 81st (18:05), Logan Zuleger placed 111th (18:55) and Tyler Hill claimed 121st (19:11) in a field of 164 finishers.
Lexi Marion was the top Davie finisher in the girls race as her time of 22:10 landed her in 68th place. Rachel Starkey was 81st in 23:02 and was followed by Kinsley Shinsky (24:02), Clara Phelps (27:06) and Abby Lane (32:19). Shinsky’s time was a new PR by 20 seconds.
“Our conference once again showed why it is among the most competitive in the state with five of the top eight teams coming from the CPC,” coach Rob Raisbeck said. “We advanced three teams to states and should have had a fourth. Parkland and Glenn didn’t show up and that meant that based on the formula the state uses, the seventh place team did not qualify. I really feel for West Forsyth. They deserved to advance.
“Thomas ran a great race and we will get to see him again at states. Ethan had a rough go of it. He got stepped on and lost a shoe in the last mile. He was running strong at the time but lost time and missed qualifying by about 10 seconds. Brayden had an outstanding race at the third position. We return five of our top six next year and depending on what realignment looks like, we should compete for a spot at the state meet next year.
“Our girls had to battle some adversity. Lexi has run strong all year but was a little off today. We had two girls drop out due to illness and we don’t have the depth to overcome that. We are looking at a strong group from the middle schools next year to provide some immediate help.”
Next week, there will be a story on Essic’s all-state performance in the state meet.