Lawrence, Warriors run past Falcons

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on October 5, 2005 2:06 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- Eastern Wayne's Michael Lawrence ran a first-place time of 17 minutes, 21 seconds and paced five Warriors among the top runners in Eastern Wayne's 18-37 victory at county rival Charles B. Aycock on Tuesday afternoon.

Joey Burridge finished second in 19:06, followed by teammates Matt Interrante (19:35), Paul Wruck (19:36) and Stephen Hendricks (19:44). Tyler Thornton (20:29) finished ninth overall for the Warriors, who avenged an earlier home loss against the Golden Falcons.

"I saw a lot of good effort from the guys," Eastern Wayne boys coach Vince Beasley said. "Michael has a good base, and he's been running all summer. His times keep getting better."

Aycock's Dalton Denning claimed second with a 19:06. Teammates Alan Toler (19:53), Trey Benton (20:24) and Travis Reeves (20:34) all finished in the top 10.

"We're not far off of our times, but they've got Lawrence and Interrante and a strong top-five after that," Aycock boys' coach Derek Matthews said. "I'm only graduating two this year. We're stronger than we were last year, and we'll be stronger again next year."

The girls' meet saw the Golden Falcons' Rebekka Katko narrowly edge Eastern Wayne's Helen Baddour by a fraction of a second at the finish line as each crossed with a 21:54. Katko, a foreign exchange student from Finland, eclipsed her best time at Aycock's home course by more than a minute.

"I've never ran cross country in the past, but I've done cross-country skiing," Katko said. "I've made a lot of good friends on the team, and I enjoy running."

Eastern Wayne girls went on to claim the third and fourth spot with Natalie Taylor (22:54) and Lydia Hirschy (23:37) finishing strong. Ashleigh Deal (24:50) took sixth for the Warriors, who won the meet by a close 27-30 margin.

Aycock's Megan Hales finished fifth with a 24:31 as teammates Danielle Sealey (25:31), Hillary Beamon (26:12), Duna Gylfadottir (26:33) and Taylor Forbis (26:34) notched the seven-through-10 spots, respectively.

"It was a close meet. C.B.A's been working real hard," Eastern Wayne girls coach Sidney Myers said. "We've had some girls with some leg problems, and they've just got to work hard and get through that."

Both Lawrence and Katko, the eventual winners, were at or near the top at the one-mile mark.

Lawrence ran the first mile in 5:30 and held a 26-second lead over Denning. Interrante, running in his first race of the season, was followed close behind by Aycock's Toler, Daniel Pennington and Benton.

"At the one-mile mark, I thought I might drop off, but I kept it up pretty good," Lawrence said. "The weather felt good, and it wasn't too humid."

Baddour and Taylor held a small, one-second advantage over Katko after one mile. Baddour and Taylor were evenly paced at 7:10 with Katko at 7:11. Hales followed 20 seconds later at 7:30.

"They've over-powered us in the past, but I think we are closing the gap a little bit," Aycock girls coach Sheila Covar said.

The two-team meet, which featured 42 total runners, was ran under sunny, 78-degree temperatures.

Both teams return to action next Tuesday. The Warriors travel to Wilson Beddingfield, while the Falcons visit Southern Wayne at Waynesborough Park. The annual Wayne County meet is scheduled for Oct. 21 at Eastern Wayne.