The Davie cross country team returned to Kernersville’s Ivey Redmon Park Saturday for the NCHSAA state championships. All four classifications held championship race on the 5k course that the War Eagles have come to know well as Ivey Redmon was the site of the CPC and Midwest Regional meets over the previous three weeks. Unlike the muddy regional meet, the state meet was run in mostly dry conditions with sunny temperatures hovering around 50.   

After the 2-A boys’ race got things underway, the 4-A boys took center stage at 10:30 a.m. Davie was represented by seniors Clay Summers and Trey Raisbeck, who qualified for the championship race by virtue of their performances at the regional a week earlier. For Summers, it was his second trip to the state, having finished 85th last year. Raisbeck missed last year’s race by a mere second and was making his debut at the championship.

Only the best runners in North Carolina qualify for the state meet, resulting in a tightly bunched pack for the first mile. Summers got off the line in good position and cruised through the first mile in 5:08. The senior worked his way through the pack over the second mile and charged across the finish line in 31st place with a time of 16:42, a huge personal best time by 17 seconds. In all, 150 runners competed in the race.

Raisbeck was relegated to the second row at the start and was a bit handicapped at the start. He came through the mile at 5:19, and from there methodically picked off runners in front of him. Raisbeck sprinted past no fewer than five competitors in the final stretch to secure 78th place in 17:21.     

In the team competition, Cary took home the first place trophy behind individual champion Anton Idhammar, whose winning time of 15:45 was four seconds clear of Millbrook’s Nicholas Scudder. Cary totalled 70 points to edge defending champion Green Hope (76) and Cardinal Gibbons (85). CPC teams in the meet included West Forsyth (eighth place), Reynolds (10th) and Reagan (14th) in the field of 17 teams.

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The 4-A girls took to the course at 11:30 a.m., with the War Eagles being represented by junior Emerson Frantz, who was looking to improve upon last year’s 45th place finish. Frantz cruised through her first mile in 6:02 in the midst of the large contingent of 136 eventual finishers. She crossed the tape in 37th place with a time of 20:03.

Pinecrest sophomore Carmen Alder continued her winning ways with a dominating performance as she claimed the gold medal in 17:50 to defeat runner-up Natalie Tyner of Wilmington Laney (18:02). Tyner’s personal journey was one of several heartrending stories represented in the girls’ race. Tyner’s family evacuated the coast during Hurricane Florence and she had to live with family members in New Jersey for several weeks. Her team did not train together for nearly a month.

In the team competition, Cardinal Gibbons raced to an emotional victory behind third place finisher Katharine Priu. For Gibbons, it was its remarkable ninth consecutive state championship with the last four being at the 4-A level and the other five being in the 3-A classification.  The race came less than a month after its No. 2 runner, Madeline Shook, tragically died in a car accident. West Forsyth (81) was second, while Myers Park (105) was third. Reagan (194) was sixth.

“I am extremely proud of our whole team for the strides we have made this season,” said coach Rob Raisbeck. “Clay, Trey and Emerson all ran well today. Clay in particular ran a stellar race. It is likely that each of them will run one more postseason race before transitioning to the track, but this was a good way to end the championship part of our season.”