The Davie cross country team returned to Kernersville’s Ivey Redmon Park Saturday for the 19-team Midwest 4-A Regional. Friday’s hard rain left the course muddy and with standing water, but it did not dampen the spirits of the nearly 1,000 athletes competing in races for 4-A, 2-A and 1-A classifications throughout the morning.

The 4-A boys was the first race of the day at 9 a.m. Davie entered the meet with the No. 8 seed and would need its best race of the season to crack the top five and advance to the state championships. In addition to the top five teams, the fastest seven individuals not on qualifying teams also advanced to Saturday’s state finals. The War Eagles got off the line fast in the sloppy conditions and gave it all they had before coming up short in the team standings. Their tie for seventh marked the first time the boys had cracked the top 10 in many years. The CPC demonstrated why it is one of the toughest conferences in the state as West Forsyth (74 points), Reagan (83) and Reynolds (90) swept the top three places. Pinecrest (102) and Page (160) claimed the last two spots. Grimsley (192) was sixth, followed by Davie (214) and Northwest Guilford (214).

Senior co-captains Clay Summers and Trey Raisbeck punched their tickets to the state meet by being among the seven individual qualifiers. Summers ran a superb race to finish ninth in 17:03. On a course that was running 30 seconds slower than usual due to the slippery footing, Summers’ time was only four seconds off his personal best.

Raisbeck achieved a measure of vindication after missing out on last year’s state meet by a second. His time of 17:35 was good for 23rd. Reynolds took the top two individual spots behind the performances of winner Jack Holbrook (16:40) and teammate John Paynter (16:51).

The third War Eagle runner across the line was Nate Brooks, who placed 47th in 18:09. Braxton Folmar was 61st in 18:39, followed by Jackson Lawrence in 74th (19:15). Parker Prysiazniuk was 79th (19:27) and Sean Riordan 82nd (19:32). A total of 125 runners completed the race.

The seventh-place tie for the Davie boys marked continued improvement in the program – the 2016 team was 13th in the regional, while the 2017 team was 11th.

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The girls’ race got underway at 10:30 a.m. with junior Emerson Frantz hoping to return to the state meet for the second straight year.

Charging hard off the line at the gun, Frantz raced to a 10th place finish to easily qualify for Saturday’s state final. Her time was 20:19. The state’s top runner, Carmen Alder of Pinecrest, cruised to an easy win in 18:34, a minute slower than her best time but almost a minute faster than runner-up Emma Kincaid of Grimsley (19:27). Four girls’ teams advanced to the state meet, including regional champion West Forsyth (38 points), Reagan (68), Pinecrest (82) and Hickory Ridge (114).

The Davie girls entered the meet as the 11th seed and finished ninth with 239 points, a mere two points behind conference rival Reynolds. Brooke Smith was 37th in 22:14 and was followed by Paige Riordan, whose time of 23:38 was good for 55th. Abby Yount ran a sensational race to claim 60th in 23:52.  After battling breathing issues throughout the season, Yount’s performance was a season best for her by nearly two minutes. Freshman Heidi Dix ran a personal best time by 45 seconds to claim 82nd in 25:22. Sydney Love was 87th in 25:52 and Georgia Visser was 88th in 26:07, a personal best time by 56 seconds.

“I have heard it said that at some point in a race a runner’s legs start to give out,” coach Rob Raisbeck said. “At that point a runner has to race with their heart. All of our runners showed great heart today. Too often, an athlete crosses the finish line and says they had something left and could have run faster. All of our kids gave it everything they had today. They had nothing left at the end. Coach (Jeff) Jones and I were very proud of the effort of all of our runners.”

The state championships for all four classifications will be held at Ivey Redmon Park on Nov. 3. Summers and Raisbeck will represent Davie in the 4-A boys’ race at 10:30 a.m. Frantz will run the girls’ race at 11:30 a.m.