CANTON — Haywood County dominated the Blue Ridge Conference Cross Country Tournament on Wednesday, Oct. 24, with the Waynesville Middle School boys placing first to end its season with a perfect 8-0 record, Canton Middle School girls placing second and Canton Middle School’s Cody Lovelace placing first, individually, to end his season undefeated.
The CMS boys placed fourth and the WMS girls team placed fifth.
The tournament featured the top seven runners from each of the competing nine teams in the conference. The two-mile course was run at the Canton Ball Park.
Waynesville Middle School’s win was the second conference championship in a row for cross country Coach Brad Dodson, whose WMS girls team won the title last year.
“I really think the guys brought it together when they realized it’s not just one of them but five of them,” said Dodson. “About mid-season I knew we were going to have a decent team, I could tell by the dynamics, but I didn’t realize it was going to be this good. They kind of committed to a goal they wanted to see through.  For the girls, it was a very young team.  For as young as they are, I was very impressed with their fifth-place finish in the conference. I was really proud of Canton and Macon, too. These are coaches I have worked with in the off season, as well.”
Points are awarded to the first five finishers of each team. The team with the lowest number of points wins. In the boys meet, Waynesville Middle School won first place with 64 points, followed by Macon with 75; Flat Rock, 97; Canton, 100;  Hendersonville, 107, Rugby, 116; Brevard, 121; and Polk County, 178.
Running for WMS were (4) Mason McConnell, 11:56.09; (5) Will Nolte, 12:07.72; (6) Crayton Morrow, 12:13.59; (24) Luke Stine, 13:25.69; (27) Davis Reynolds, 13:35.90; (28) Brooks Wilson, 13:48.21; and (39) Jacob Bennington, 14:23.15. There were 59 runners in the boys meet.
Running for CMS were (1) Cody Lovelace, 11:24.60; (11) Will Norris, 12:37.89; (25) Alex Corona-Perez, 13:32.71; (30) Riley Marcus, 13:54.46; (36) Tanner Reece, 14:16.30; (49) Ryan Singleton, 15:04.47; and (52) Dawson Hyde, 15:23.67.
In the girls meet, which had 63 runners, Canton Middle School lost to Macon Middle by just three points, a team CMS beat earlier in the season.
“I’m just very proud of the girls. We didn’t know what we were going to have this season,” said CMS Coach Jennifer Williamson. “They just improved every meet. And different girls got better every meet. We had seven or eight girls who ran close together each meet. We never knew who was going to be our top five runners.  We were right in there with Macon, only three points.”
Macon Middle won the girls meet with 54 points, followed by Canton with 57 points, Rugby, 89; Flat Rock, 104; Waynesville, 116; Hendersonville, 166; Brevard, 176; Polk County, 182; and Apple Valley, 219.
Running for Canton Middle School were (4) Colbie Williamson, 13:43.84; (6) Venus Arellano, 13:55.59; (12) Supola MacKinney, 14:19.48; (15) Sydney Blasy, 14:27.75; (20) Alex Dillingham, 14:46.52; (21) Rylee Williamson, 14:50.49; and (27) Alex Faulstich, 15:08.96.
Running for WMS were (7) Iris Howell, 13:57.72; (11) Emma Kimmett, 14:04.06; (26) McKenna Keeling, 15:02.53; (30) Lucie Patten, 15:12.19; (43) Rebekah Vertrees, 15:53.79; and (49) Andrea Castillo, 16:13.25.