Aycock, Saints chase S. Johnston

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on September 30, 2009 1:47 PM

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DUDLEY -- In a year that has been defined by dominance on the cross country circuit, it was South Johnston that set the pace in the most recent Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference tri-meet at Southern Wayne on Tuesday afternoon.

The Trojans finished with 22 team points, which was good enough to defeat C.B. Aycock (55) and Southern Wayne (60) during the boys' portion of the 3.1-mile (5K) race.

South Johnston's Civilo Perez finished first overall in 17 minutes and 25 seconds. Teammate Nathan Raynor (18:18) ran second. Phillip Clinton (19:31), Josh McNeil (20:13) and Trey Gay (20:17) rounded out the Trojans' score.

"We are actually missing our best runner who is out with mono," said South Johnston head coach Joe Loia said. "Our guys are getting better and they are working hard to stay focused on reaching our goals at the end of October."

Nathan Jones paced the Golden Falcons with a third-place time of 19:09. Bobby Cox (19:46), Cam Taylor (21:59), Alex Rogers (22:02) and Ian Slade (22:03) completed the team score.

"Our guys are coming along," said C.B. Aycock head coach Derek Matthews. "We do not have that one guy that is going to go out and blow people away so we have to continue to get better as a team."

Trevor Morgan led the Saints with a time of 20:00. Rishad McCoy (20:42), Daniel Nillsen (21:17), Yassine Qaddi (21:57) and Quadri West (22:11) finished the Saints team total.

The girls' meet was a two-team affair.

South Johnston did not have enough runners to record a team score so C.B. Aycock and Southern Wayne were forced to battle head-to-head for the bragging rights.

Caroline Schlaeppi led the Golden Falcons with a time of 24:21. Kendra Speight (24:24), Jessica Kyer (24:26), Elvia Rodriguez (25:08) and Courtney McGowan combined to tally a perfect score of 15.

Southern Wayne finished with 55 points behind Kanesha Jones' time of 29:27. Sarah Judy (30:37), Lacey Tillman (31:10), Bianca McCarter (31:31) and Paige Robinson (32:40) completed the Saints' team score.