PREPS
WHITEVILLE — Senior A.J. Smith and sophomore Cate DeVane of East Bladen ran to victories Thursday in a final regular season meet of cross country teams in the Three Rivers Conference.
The meet had been billed as a run for those qualified to the regionals, or a last chance to get a regional qualifying time. Only East Bladen, West Bladen and host Whiteville ran; other participants in the November and December portion of the season included Red Springs, St. Pauls and Fairmont.
Smith remained undefeated for the year, clocking a time of 20 minutes, 6 seconds. Second was Whiteville’s Brandon Nguyen in 21:01. West Bladen’s Jacob Bryan ran third in 30:35.
DeVane toured the Whiteville Recreation Center course in 26:30. West Bladen had the only full girls team and was led by sophomore Lainey Autry in 29:40. Third was Violet Allen in 32:59, fourth was Olivia Allen in 35:04, sixth was Cassie Humphrey in 36:17 and seventh was Azillyah McDonald in 36:19.
The Three Rivers usually has a season-ending conference championship meet, but the coronavirus limited how many teams could gather at meets this year in addition to pushing back the season. Coaches in December were uncertain how the league’s boys and girls champions and its all-conference performers would be selected.
An idea pushed by Red Springs coach Glenn Patterson and supported by several was to take best regular season times for each runner, list them like a championship meet, and award team points and individual honors accordingly. West Bladen head coach Brian McCleney said Saturday he was unaware of the league giving a final way to accord the honors.
The league, in each year of this realignment period, has always accorded league champs and all-conference honors with the exception of last year’s spring sports when only two weeks of competition were completed because of the pandemic. The full cross country regular season was completed, as was volleyball this past week.
The 2-A Mideast Regional is Saturday in Cary at the WakeMed Soccer Park. Expected to run there are representatives from East Bladen and West Bladen.