Scotland XC ‘tempo runs’ to top finish

LAURINBURG — In its first competitive race since last season, the Scotland High School cross country team was in midseason form.

The boys’ team claimed the seven fastest times, while the girls’ team claimed the top-3 fastest times in a meet featuring the Richmond, Purnell Swett and the Fighting Scots. Seventy-First High School was also scheduled to run in the meet, but pulled out, according to Scotland head coach Greg Wrape.

“They had a little bit of a plan, and they really stuck to it,” Wrape said. “Then we really competed at the end, which is what we were trying to do. Overall, the team results were very strong. It’s always big to win a race.”

In the team results, Scotland took first, Richmond took second and Purnell Swett took third.

The meet was originally scheduled to be hosted by Purnell Swett and held in Lumberton at Luther Britt Park, but flooding in the park from heavy rains meant that the races had to be moved to the James L. Morgan Recreation Complex in Laurinburg.

Senior Jackson Sellers picked up where he left off last year, finishing first overall in the boys’ race with a time of 17:29:00. A time he said he thinks is his personal best overall time ever.

“I think that was my fastest time for this course,” Sellers said. “We hit our splits pretty well in the tempo run. We’re pretty familiar with the course. We run out here a good amount during the year and a lot of us come out here during the summer just to train a little.”

Sophomore Carson Buie had her first race win as a runner, finishing with the top time in the girls’ race at 21:51:00.

In the first lap around the course, Buie, junior Bethany Matthews and senior Madison Williams were bunched up behind Purnell Swett’s Kylie Chavis. But, on the second and last lap, the three Scotland runners were able to pass Chavis to claim the top-3 times.

“We were tempo running, so it’s like a workout,” Buie said. “For the last lap, [Wrape] told us we could actually run at a faster pace. So I think we just kind of stepped it up the last lap and got into the mental state that we were going to run faster and keep that going.”

Buie added that she beat her personal record for a race by a more than a minute.

“The first-place finisher in cross country is not the only one that matters,” Wrape said. “The runners behind them also had very solid days, so it’s good to see us get that first place overall, but it’s also very encouraging to see how the guys and girls competed behind them. I was impressed by everybody from the top down.”