LAURINBURG — At Tuesday’s cross-country meet, there were more runners than runners from Richmond Senior High School, so they were spread out.
At Dragon Park, the Raiders and Lady Raiders ran their third 3.2-mile run of the season.
Along with the host school, Scotland High School, Richmond also played Pinecrest High School, Hoke County High School, and Marlboro County High School, which was not in the same league.
In both races, the Patriots and Lady Patriots of Pinecrest won easily. Pinecrest had five of the top runners in both the boys’ and girls’ races. Both teams won with 15 points.
Head coach Ashleigh Buie said, “We played some tougher teams and in a much bigger field.” When there are more runners on the path, it can be hard to get around everything. That was taken care of well by our runners today.
“Every week, our goal is to get better at what we do, and I think we were able to do that,” she said. “Running against other good runners makes us better.”
Only Scotland didn’t have enough male or female runners to make it into the team race out of the five teams that competed. The girls’ team from Hoke County also didn’t make it.
Richmond’s times were the same as they have been all season, but no runner set a new best time for the season.
The Lady Raiders come in second.
With 54 points, the Lady Raiders came in second place, 15 points behind Pinecrest. Third place went to Marlboro County, which had 73 points.
Eighth, ninth, tenth, thirteenth, and fourteenth were Richmond’s runners who crossed the finish line.
The senior Mariana Mendez ran the fastest, and her time of 23:30.00 put her in eighth place. This was the first point for the Lady Raiders.
Sam Barnes (25:33.00) and Mascha Theijs (26:39.00), both seniors, came in ninth and tenth, respectively.
In 13th and 14th place, senior Alicia Webb (29:56.00) and junior Dayana Franco (30:38.00) won the most points for the team. Junior Jada Scott also ran, and she crossed the finish line in 35:29.00.
Raiders place fourth overall
In the boys’ race, the Raiders got 98 points, which put them at the very bottom of the four-team list.
Pinecrest (15 points), Hoke County (64 points), and Marlboro County were all ahead of Richmond.
The Raiders had times that put them in 12th, 17th, 21st, 23rd, and 25th place all around. With a time of 21:08.00, junior DJ Gainey led Richmond.
After him came Victor Nguyen, a freshman, in 22:28.00 and Jake Richardson, a junior, in 23:59.00. Freshman Elliot Samuels (26:56.00) and junior Luke Gilliam (30:29.00) set the last two best times for the Raiders.
As Richmond’s last runner, senior Jaxon Chavis set a time of 38:19.00.
On Tuesday, the Raiders and Lady Raiders will play again at Lee County High School. Pinecrest will also be there.