NEWBERRY – All three local cross-country teams have qualified for this week’s state championship meet in Columbia.

The state qualifying races were held in Newberry on the Newberry College course with Nation Ford and Fort Mill boys winning their qualifying races.

The 5A qualifier was held Friday, Nov. 4. There were two qualifying races for both the boys’ and girls’ teams in all classifications. The top eight teams from each race qualified for the state meet.

In Nation Ford’s race, the Falcons won with a score of 27 and was led by Mason Haynes who won the qualifier race in 15:40. Alan Dayrit was second for the Falcons in 16:02 and Chase Johnson was fifth in 16:27, with Townsend Smith finishing sixth in 16:29. Alexander Bentley rounded out the scoring for Nation Ford finishing 13th at 17:00.

In the other boy’s qualifying race, Fort Mill won with a score of 42 and was led by Evan Ickert in fourth at 16:12. Tanner Long was seventh for the Jackets at 16:26 and Isaac Campbell was eighth at 16:29 for Fort Mill. Evan Wey finished ninth at 16:29 for Fort Mill and Devon Sibley was 14th at 16:44 to finish the scoring for the Jackets.

In the girl’s races, Fort Mill was second with 74 points, behind Lexington who won with 33 points. Alivia Cleveland won the race with a time of 18:23 and Avery Moriarty was sixth for the Jackets at 19:38. Kaylee Rovenstine finished eighth for Fort Mill at 19:48, followed by Mia Zook in 29th at 20:52 and Lauren Fredenberg in 30th at 20:53.

Nation Ford finished fourth in the other girl’s race with Mia Royall finishing third overall in 19:10. Adria Kahre was 21st at 20:55 and Alaina Mahmood was 22nd at 20:56 for the Falcons. Elise Posko finished 23rd at 20:57 and Taylor Battle was 28th at 21:01 for Nation Ford to round out the scoring.

In the 4A qualifier Saturday, the Catawba Ridge boys finished fourth and the girls finished seventh. In the boy’s race, the Copperheads were led by Jordan Kent with a 16th place finish in 17:37, followed by Brady Laurin at 17:38 in 17th place. Jackson Rozelle was 29th at 18:03 and Matthew Lopresti was 31st at 18:05. Max Conetta finished 34th at 18:21 to end the Copperheads scoring.

The girl’s race was led by Isabella Cardozo in 18th at 21:01 for Catawba Ridge, with Alexandra Cardozo finishing in 27th at 21:41 and Hayla Banish in 30th at 22:02. Jenna Couch was 44th at 22:45 for the Copperheads and Kaylie Manha rounded out the scoring in 60th at 24:14 for Catawba Ridge.

The 5A state finals is Thursday, Nov. 10 with the 4A state finals being Friday, Nov. 11 at the Sandhills Research Center.

Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep