Scotland cross-country closes season at Sandhills Athletic Conference championship meet

LAURINBURG — In their last time running a course this year, Scotland had a top-20 finisher on the women’s side as well as three men placed in the top 40 of Tuesday evening’s Sandhills Athletic Conference cross-country championship meet held at the Dragon Park/Scotland Yard.

Scotland had four runners each compete in the women’s and men’s races. In the men’s race, which preceded the women’s one, Deontre Tyson crossed the finish line with a time of 20 minutes and 25.81 seconds to place in 31st, Nikoda Driggers finished in 21:33.14 to take 35th, Jaeden Williams had a time of 23:18.82 to finish 40th, and Vincenzo Butera completed the course in 25:25.51 to place 45th.

“This is all their first year for cross-country,” Scotland head coach Dawson Shelley said. “They’ve all improved a lot. Jaeden’s a senior, so this is his last race. Tre (Tyson), Nikoda, and Vinnie (Butera) are all sophomores. But Jaeden did track for me this past spring. He’s been kind of a leader for us. He’s been playing soccer while also running cross-country. So, it’s been a little tough on him doing both sports. But I think he’s handled it very well.

“Tre and Nikoda both have probably dropped three or four minutes since the start of this year. Anytime I tell them to run three miles, they’ll do five. They’re by far our best runners, and I’ve enjoyed watching them get better, Tre especially. But Nikoda is right there behind him.”

Butera’s time was a season-best for him, improving by nearly 10 minutes since the start of the year.

“I feel good,” Butera said on getting his best time of the season. “My starting running time was like a 30-minute two-mile, and I’ve just been running basically a four-mile every day. That’s the best way I’ve found to get faster.”

“He’s a little bit bigger guy running,” Shelley said on Butera. “Usually you don’t see 220-pound guys running cross-country, but he’s dropped from about 35, 36 minutes.”

Running in the women’s race, Chloe Ganus came in 20th at 24:28.30 for Scotland, Ariana Council took 27th at 25:19.29, Emma Jones was 31st at 28:35.02, and Caydence Deese followed behind Jones in 32nd at 28:55.72.

“All those girls have worked really hard,” Shelley said. “This is Caydence’s first year; the other three, this is their second year with me. Chloe and Ariana, they’re our best girls. They’ve been running very well this year. Chloe’s a junior, so she’ll be back next year. Ariana’s a senior, so this is her last race. She did track with me her first year and then (her) last two years, cross-country. She’s gotten a lot better over the course of three years. Chloe is probably our most consistent runner.

“(Caydence has) improved a lot. She’s probably dropped about five or six minutes over the course of the year, which is really good. She’s down to about a 29-minute 5K. And then Emma, she’s a sophomore. This is her second year with me. She’s dropped a lot since last year. Last year, she was about a 35, 36-minute runner. Now she’s about a 28, 29-minute runner.”

While warming up for her race, Jones admitted she had some butterflies but that it was normal for her.

“I guess that’s how it is for every race because you never know how well you’re going to do,” Jones said. “You’ve just got to keep pushing it.”

Scotland did not have any runners qualify for regionals.

Union Pines’ Corbin Weeks finished first in the men’s race at 16:06.93, and Pinecrest’s Caroline Hough won the women’s race at 20:41.38. Pinecrest had the lowest point totals to claim first in the men’s and women’s team results; the Pinecrest men had 25 points, while the women had 18. Scotland did not have the minimum five runners to be eligible for team points.