Visiting teams dominate ECC meet in Dudley

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on September 27, 2012 1:48 PM

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DUDLEY -- Triton got the best of the four Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference teams at Southern Wayne's first home cross country meet of the season Wednesday afternoon.

On the boys' side the Hawks edged South Johnston by three points 28-31. North Lenoir finished third with 67 points and Southern Wayne ran fourth with 150 points.

South Johnston's Seth Rogers won the boys' race in 18 minutes and 35 seconds. Triton's Jared Keever was second in 18:48.

Jacqui Gillette led North Lenoir with a ninth-place time of 20:32. Marshall Letchworth finished 11th in 20:42 and Orlando Cannon finished just two seconds behind in 12th.

"We had a nice showing today and that was even with being a man down," North Lenoir coach Jim Montague said. "Zach Respess, who is usually our top runner, is not here because of a commitment to the National Honor Society, but we still ran well."

Wes Smith paced Southern Wayne with a 15th-place finish in 21:22.

Triton ran past the field in the girls' race and placed 12 runners among the top 15. The Hawks finished with 26 points. Southern Wayne finished second with 79 points.

Ashley Dean crossed the finish line first in 22:18 seconds to pace the Triton squad. Emily Hamilton ran fourth in 24:07.

South Johnston's Dava McLamb finished second overall in 22:20 and Caroline Dorman ran fifth in 24:13. South Johnston does not have enough female runners to post a team score.

Mollianne Kennedy led Southern Wayne with a third-place finish in 23:38. Kennedy was the lone Saints' runner in the top 15.

"Mollianne has done a great job so far this season," Southern Wayne head coach Takisha Vann said. "Which is amazing because she splits time between running with us and playing on the tennis team."

Southern Wayne will host a benefit 5K run on Saturday. The race will start at 8:30 am and the proceeds will go to the cross country team.

Southern Wayne and North Lenoir travel to C.B. Aycock for another cross country meet on Oct. 3.