Eagles' Jones picks up third straight meet victory
By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on September 1, 2010 1:47 PM
Connor Jones is a young man on a mission.
The phenomenal cross country runner from Wayne Christian crossed the finish line first for the third consecutive meet on Tuesday at Wayne Community College. Jones' time of 19 minutes and 39 seconds was nearly a minute better than his next closest competitor.
"Connor is a quiet kid but he leads by example," said first-year Eagles head coach Brian Jones. "We have a couple of guys that are more vocal, but Connor just goes out and does his best each meet and the guys respect that."
Jones posted a one-mile split of 5:55, and followed that by finishing his second-mile circuit in 13 minutes flat.
It was clear, by that point, that the rest of the field was running for second place.
Faith Christian of Rocky Mount's Josiah Marshall claimed runner-up honors in 20:32 seconds. McKinley Gray from Epiphany raced home third in 20:47.
Will Massey (23:20) finished fifth for Wayne Christian. The other Eagles that counted toward the team score were Marc Sawyer, who finished seventh and Will Gardner, who came in 14th.
Epiphany won first place in the boys' team standings with 41 points. Wayne Christian finished second with 44 and Faith Christian scored 84.
Robert Glass paced Wayne Country Day with a 12th-place finish. Oliver Reimer followed in 13th and Holden Edwards finished 15th for the Chargers. Wayne Country Day did not have enough runners to record a team score.
On the girls' side, Epiphany's Dana McLaughlin dominated the field in a time of 24:48 seconds. Faith Christian's Carolina Leland finished second in 27:05.
Sarah Allen led Wayne Christian with a eighth-place finish in 32:50. Kayla Kennedy placed 11th for the Eagles and Christina Foster ran 13th.
"I think it says a lot about our girls to come out here every day and do their best despite not being able to score as a team," said Jones. "We lost two girls at the last minute before the season started, but I'm proud of our girls that did come out."
Lisa Peacock paced Wayne Country Day with a fifth-place finish in 29:43 seconds. Teammates Amy Hodges finished seventh and Mi Rae claimed 20th place. The Chargers did not have enough runners to compile a team score.
The teams run again Thursday at Wilson Christian.