Warriors boys, girls take ECC cross country meet

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on October 3, 2007 3:30 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- Eastern Wayne continued its pursuit of the Class 3-A Eastern Carolina Conference cross country title by sweeping a tri-meet with Charles B. Aycock and Wilson Beddingfield on Tuesday afternoon.

The Warriors' boys finished with a score of 25 points ahead of Beddingfield's total of 44 and Aycock's 61. Eastern Wayne's Tim Wright paced the boys side of things with a time of 18 minutes, 33 seconds.

With one of his biggest rivals, Aycock's Nik Fredrick not participating, Wright had to find other ways to motivate himself while blocking out a handful of distractions.

"I think I did okay today," Wright said. "I felt pretty bad before the race. The first loop felt pretty good but our times were slow. It was really hard to run without Nik running today, because he said he wasn't feeling well enough to run.

"I was just running as hard as I could. I didn't know who was near me and it was really aggravating not knowing how I was doing time wise."

Beddingfield's Dalton Ford finished just off Wright's pace with a time of 18:45, while Eastern Wayne's Stefan Henshaw ended up third at 19:37.

J.C. Cook (fifth place), Zach Parrish (seventh place) and Miles Potter (ninth place) each finished in the top 10 for the Warriors.

With the conference meet just a few weeks away, Eastern Wayne boys coach Vince Beasley understands the importance of these meets against familiar foes.

"The guys have been working and they see their times keep improving," Beasley said. "We have a couple of things we need to iron out. I have a couple of freshman coming up that are doing really well, like Zach Parrish and J.C. Cook.

"They're doing really well on their own and working hard. We kind of need to see where we're going to sit against each team, like Aycock and Wilson Hunt. Hunt is probably going to be our biggest competition."

Jackson Wooten (sixth place) and Travis Reeves (10th place) each placed in the top 10 for Aycock.

The Golden Falcons' Caroline Schlaeppi notched a personal-best time of 22:47 on the 3.1-mile course. Despite her performance, Eastern Wayne bested Aycock 27-32 in the team competition. Beddingfield did not have enough runners to post a score.

The Warriors' Kelly Gregorcyk finished 13 seconds behind Schlaeppi and more than half a minute ahead of Aycock's Megan Hales, who recorded a time of 23:37. Sarah Schley (fourth place), Leanna Kirkland (sixth place), Shannon Rouse (seventh place), Deborah Doran (eighth place), Heather Black (ninth place) and Sarah Ricker (10th place) each placed in the top 10 for Eastern Wayne.

Lorena Estrada (fifth place) was Aycock's only other top 10 finisher.

Despite coming up a bit short, Aycock girls coach Shelia Covar was pleased with her team's effort.

"We did well," she said. "We had a few personal records, so they were happy. We're not there yet, but we're working hard."

Boys

Eastern Wayne 25

Wilson Beddingfield 44

C.B. Aycock 61

1. Tim Wright, E. Wayne 18:33

2. Dalton Ford, Beddingfield 18:45

3. Stefan Henshaw, EW 19:37

4. Jimmy Baker, B 20:14

5. J.C. Cook, EW 21:02

6. Jackson Wooten, C.B. Aycock 21:04

7. Zach Parrish, EW 21:05

8. Ryan Phillips, B 21:26

9. Myles Potter, EW 22:04

10. Travis Reeves, CBA 22:25

Girls

Eastern Wayne 27

C.B. Aycock 32

1. Caroline Schleappi, CBA 22:47

2. Kelly Gregorcyk, EW 23:00

3. Megan Hales, CBA 23:37

4. Sarah Schley, EW 23:40

5. Lorena Estrada, CBA 23:57

6. Leanna Kirkland, EW 24:41

7. Shannon Rouse, EW 26:26

8. Deborah Doran, EW 26:48

9. Heather Black, EW 26:57

10. Sarah Ricker, EW 27:37