South Johnston boys, Triton girls continue league dominance

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on October 21, 2009 1:50 PM

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The song remained the same Tuesday afternoon.

As they had done throughout their respective Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference regular-season cross country schedules, South Johnston's boys and Triton's girls once again ran strong Tuesday afternoon.

And each team earned its first-ever ECC championship contested at historic Waynesborough Park.

South Johnston's Cirillo Perez, named the ECC runner-of-the-year, finished the 3.1-mile (5K) course in 17 minutes, 29 seconds. Teammate Nathen Romero raced home in second place and Patrick Worthington claimed fourth place overall as the Trojans tallied 29 team points.

Eastern Wayne's Russell Turner finished third overall in 18:01.

"I didn't try to do anything different, just take advantage of the perfect conditions," said Turner. "I obviously want to run my best times here and at the county meet next week, and I was able to do that."

Caleb Cooper (18:54) finished eighth overall for the Warriors. Eastern Wayne claimed runner-up honors in the team standings with 63 points.

North Lenoir's Zach Beard recorded a top-10 finish in 18:22. Charles B. Aycock's Nathan Jones (19:23) and Southern Wayne's Cole Byrd (19:34) emerged their respective team's top runner.

On the girls' side, Triton who paced the field. The Hawks finished with 22 points, followed by C.B. Aycock (42) and Eastern Wayne (70).

ECC runner-of-the-year Dava Johnston claimed first overall in 22:34. Teammate Laura Godwin crossed the line three seconds behind Johnston to take second.

Aycock's Caroline Schlaeppi was the top Wayne County runner in 23:03. Golden Falcon teammates Kendra Speight (23:22) and Jessica Kyer (23:53) followed Schlaeppi across the finish line.

"I was really proud of the girls today, we had a lot of personal best times," said C.B. Aycock head coach Sheila Covar. "All you can ask of your team is that they do their best at the end of the season, and we have continued to get better."

Morgan Jeffreys led Eastern Wayne with a time of 24:19. Madison Hines (25:16) led North Lenoir and Kanesha Jones finished as Southern Wayne's top runner.