By Brennan Waldorf
The Division I Region A cross-country meet was held last week Nov. 6 at the Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg. Chincoteague and Northampton both traveled to the meet to compete against 10 other teams in their division.
In the boys division, Northampton finished seventh overall and was led by Eddie Maldonado-Lopez who finished 17th with a time of 20:08. Chincoteague took eighth place and was led by Connor Dendler who finished 18th with a time of 20:29.
In the girls division, Chincoteague finished sixth and was led by Carli Fradja when she finished with a time of 25:51. Northampton, which didn’t have enough runners to record a team score, had two runners named to the All-Region Cross-Country team and will advance to the state tournament. Daniela Gonzalez took top honors finishing third overall with a time of 23:31. Jessica Killebrew will also be running in the state tournament as she finished in 15th place with a time of 25:44.
The Division II Region A cross-country tournament was held simultaneously with division I last week but took place at Bruton High School. Arcadia and Nandua competed against 12 different teams and had great success as both schools advanced runners to the state tournament.
Nandua’s boys finished in a close second in the region with 56 points; Bruton High took first with the narrow margin of 60 points. District champion Carlo Balmoria was the first runner to cross the line for the Warriors coming in seventh with a time of 17:46. Ethan Harrower was the next Warrior to cross, finishing with a time of 17:56. Both runners were named to the All-Region Cross-Country team.
The Warriors will advance to the state meet as a team, which speaks volume for the program as there were a total of 91 runners in the event. Finishing in the top 20 for the Warriors were Panuncio Chavez who finished 12th with a time of 18:07, Sebastian Bonilla came in 14th with a time of 18:12, and David Gastelum finished 18th with a time 18:16.
The Lady Warriors registered only three runners in the event and did not qualify for a team score. Areli Enriquez was the top finisher among the Warriors, finishing 14th with a time of 23:07 and will advance to states.
The Arcadia boys team finished eighth with a total score of 234. Arcadia’s top runner was Abe Mateos who finished 31st with a time of 19:17. The Lady Firebirds finished fourth overall with 86 points after losing a tiebreaker with Prince Edward County. The Firebirds’ top runners were Arisbeth Gomez who finished 13th with a time of 22:58 and Grace Perez who finished 16th with a time of 23:16.
All qualifying runners will advance to the state tournament on Nov. 16 in Salem, Va.