DUNN – East Bladen’s Juanito “Johnny” Alvarado won the Southeastern Athletic Conference’s first cross country meet of the season and led his team to a tie for first place with Clinton in the boys team competition.
Alvarado won the race with a time of 19 minutes, 41 seconds. Teammate Jacob Knuth finished 3rd in 20:48 only 3 seconds behind Clinton’s Christian Ortiz. East Bladen tied Clinton for the top spot with 49 points each.
Other East Bladen boys included: Jacob Cloud, 12th place (25:52); Demery Hunter, 13th place (26:00); Chris Cromartie, 23rd place (27:31)
West Bladen’s Demon’tre Love placed 5th in the boys’ race with a time of 21:31. Teammate Peyton Pordell was 34th with a time of 42:11.
In the girls race, West Bladen’s Lainey Autry posted a 6th place finish with a time of 31 minutes, 31seconds. Teammate Kirsten Warrick was 6 seconds behind her in 7th place, and sophomore Holland Davis finished 9th in 32:43 giving the Lady Knights a trio of top ten finishers.
Galoriella Bray led the East Bladen girls with an 11th place finish in 34:05. Freshman Niyah Wooten placed 20th with a time of 37:51. Other Lady Eagles included; Brianna Phillips, 26th place (41:30); Sabara McClean 28th place (44:11).
Lady Knight senior Kaden Thurman finished in 21st place in 38:02. West Bladen had only 4 girls running Wednesday and 5 are required to compete for the team title. Coach Brian McCleney hopes to have another runner ready for the next meet.
Midway’s Hailey Heppel won the girls race with a time of 25:41, and Midway took the team title with only 23 points.
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