ROCK HILL – The Fort Mill cross-country varsity teams ran away with the York County Championship races Saturday at the Catawba Bend course in Rock Hill.
Alivia Cleveland won the girls’ varsity race in 18:37 to lead the Fort Mill, who won the race with 30 points and four top 10 finishes.
Following Cleveland across the finish line for the Jackets was Kaylee Rovenstine, who was second in 19:12. Avery Moriarty was fourth in 19:50 and Mia Zook was seventh in 20:17. Lauren Fredenberg was 16th for Fort Mill to round out the scoring in 21:13.
Northwestern was second as a team with 65 points and Nation Ford was third with 67 points. Leading the Nation Ford girls were Peyton MacMillian in eighth in 20:31 and Haley Garcia in nineth in 20:32. Jordyn Battle was 11th in 20:42, followed by Taylor Battle in 19th in 21:24 and Megan O’Flynn in 20th in 21:32.
Rock Hill was fourth with 118 points and Catawba Ridge was fifth with 136 points and was led by Isabella Cardozo who came in 10th in 20:38. Madelyn Hymas was 26th in 22:05 and Zadie Wilkerson was 28th in 22:17. Kaelyn Kellogg finished in 32nd in 22:44 and Peyton Pierson was 44th in 23:53.
In the boys’ varsity race, there were no local winners, but Fort Mill won as a team with 44 points. Garrett Brown of South Pointe won the boy’s race in 15:51.
Fort Mill was led by Connor Demmerle in fifth in 16:26 and Isaac Campbell in sixth in 16:36. Liam Eident was 10th for the Jackets in 16:57 and Luke Hunter was 11th in 17:10. Hudson Haley rounded out the scoring in 12th in 17:15 for Fort Mill.
Nation Ford finished second in the team standings with 53 points and second in the race with Alex McCaskill finishing in 16:08. Townsend Smith was third in 16:11 for Nation Ford, followed by Alexander Bently in seventh in 16:47. Turner Blackwood was 17th in 17:42 and Jacob Touchstone finished in 24th in 17:59.
Catawba Ridge boys was third with 85 points and were led by Max Conetta who finished eighth in 16:49. Jordan Kent was ninth in 16:55 and Brady Laurin was 19th in 17:52. Aiden Rogers was 21st in 17:55 and Jack Myatt rounded out the scoring in 28th in 18:11.
Nation Ford and Fort Mill will be back at the Catawba Bend course later this week for the Region 3-5A meet, while Catawba Ridge will participate in the Region 3-4A meet in Lancaster next weekend.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
