Bryson City – Entering the 2022 season with high expectations, Robbinsville’s cross-country program improved by leaps and bounds over the course of the schedule.
However, even the strides made were not enough to slip a qualifier into the state meet, as the Knights’ year came to a sooner-than-expected conclusion Saturday.
Competing in the N.C. High School Athletic Association’s 1A Western Regional Meet at Kituwah Mound in Swain County, Robbinsville’s varsity boys placed 12th in the 14-team field with 333 points. The Lady Knights only had three runners compete, voiding the ability to enter the team rankings.
“We had five personal records and one season-best at regionals, out of the 10 runners that competed,” Robbinsville head coach Kaitlyn Carringer-Adams said. “The week of regionals, William Cable – who had a potential shot at qualifying shot for state – was sick and out of school for the entire week, which affected his time. But he still gave it his all while still being sick.
“With six of our 10 runners hitting their best times – and the others running very close to their times – what more could us coaches ask for, when they all proved to have ran the best they could.”
Black Knights
All seven of Robbinsville’s boys finished within 2:40 of each other Saturday, but with Andrews’ freshman sensation O’Malley Salinas crossing the finish line at the 16:30.34 mark, by the time Cable clocked out at 19:41.48, he was 65th. Xander Wachacha was just three spots and eight seconds behind Cable, with varsity newcomer Albert Avella finding his way to the finish in 76th, with a time of 20:03.65.
From there, the Knights fired off four more finishers: Skyler Anderson (79th, 20:14.40), Ethan Webster (83rd, 20:17.87), Zeb Stewart (96th, 21:39.66) and Bruce Helms (99th, 22:14.05).
“This season, we had a lot of improvement – and a better team average overall for the entire season – than we have had in a long time for the boys team,” Carringer-Adams added. “Cross country is a sport where your time reflects the work you’ve put in over the season, and anyone can look at our times and see that our athletes have improved tremendously.”
Lady Knights
Robbinsville’s varsity girls have been snakebitten from the get-go. With six runners at the start of the season, the Knights looked poised to begin the turnaround of the program’s success. Team scores were a reality – another first in recent memory – for the first few meets.
Then freshman Abby Wehr suffered a hip injury that eventually sidelined Robbinsville’s top runner. Another pair of runners left to pursue other interests, and left in the wake was Liberty Hartley, plus twins Kamree and Skyler Oliver.
Hartley shouldered much of the load with her tenacity and varsity expertise, but the Olivers quickly showed they belonged in the dance by trimming their times down by five minutes.
Placing 70th, Hartley clocked in at 25:02.98 on Saturday; Kamree outpaced Skyler for respective 88th- and 89th-place finishes of 28:31.53 and 28:35.31.
“We faced adversity when Abby got hurt, which prevented us from (not only) being able to score as a team, but also losing one of our top runners,” Carringer-Adams said. “Despite this, the girls still worked hard – especially the Oliver twins, who have improved so much and had such great character that we would receive compliments from other coaches, spectators and even the timing company, who were all impressed by their character and improvement.”
Cherokee turned in just 24 team points to capture the boys’ regional team championship, while the Swain County Lady Devils (47) collected the girls’ title.
Salinas and Hiwassee Dam’s Ethan Russell are the only individual boys qualifiers from the Smoky Mountain Conference in the mix at state. Cherokee’s Letsi Burgos and Dvdaya Swimmer both qualified as individuals for the girls competition, as did Hayesville’s Cannon Brewer and Landon Hughes in the men’s race. Tri-County Early College freshman Fern Crayton was the sole qualifier for the Jaguars.
Cherokee’s entire boys team – as well as both of Swain’s varsity programs – qualified automatically, due to their team finishes at regionals. The 1A state meet will be held Saturday in Kernersville.