Blues Host District Meet Today At Glen Maury Park
In a large invitational meet that featured the best teams from Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and South Carolina, the Parry McCluer High School boys cross country team placed fourth of 32 teams at the Virginia XC Showcase on Saturday at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville.
Racing just outside of Richmond, the Fighting Blues finished as the top Virginia school at the meet. They scored 286 points to finish ahead of fifth-place Alebmarle (294), the second Virginia School. Christ School of Arden, N.C. won the meet with 49 points, Calvert Hall College High School (188) of Towson, Md. placed second, and Greer Middle College Charter High School (202) of Taylors, S.C. finished third.
Brunswick senior Nathan Lee won the race, completing the mostly flat 5-kilometer course in a blistering time of 14 minutes, 45.1 seconds.
Junior Kebryl Chandler led the Blues, placing sixth of 266 harriers in 14:58.8.
Sophomore Caleb Cooper was the next of the Blues to cross the line, coming in 54th in a personal- record (PR) time of 15:45.80. “Caleb had a great race, and he’s been training really well, too,” said PM head coach Chris Poluikis. “I guess it just clicked for him.”
PM’s third runner was senior Logan Wheelock (81st, 15:59.9), who finished in 81st place. “It was a tough run for Logan, especially in the last 100 meters,” said Poluikis. “But it’s the second meet in a row that he’s run under 16 minutes. It’s a good performance for him.” Wheelock was followed by senior teammate Josh Cooper (123rd, 16:31.30) and sophomore teammate Hinckley Lovelace (133rd, PR 8:24.20).
Poluikis said that Josh Cooper is one that could get even faster as the season goes on. “He’s always running with that top group and keeping pace with them and he’s not really winded at the end of those,” the PM coach said. “I could see him improving even more as we keep going.”
The average time of the top five PM runners was 15:58, a program-best average under Poluikis.
The Blues’ final runners in the varsity race were sophomore Sebastian George (254th, 18:24.20), and junior Sam Carpenter (256th, 18:30.20).
In the junior varsity 5K race, the Blues had Matthew Cooper in 184th place (19:32.00) out of 635 runners, Kaleb Vassar in 391st (21:04.90), Caden Mason in 620th (26:48.20), and Victor Poluikis in 626th (27:27). All but Mason, who is a senior, are freshmen.
Today, Wednesday, the Blues will play host for the Pioneer District meet at Glen Maury Park in Buena Vista. The meet will start at 4:30 p.m., with the Blues taking part in the varsity boys’ race at 5:30 p.m. It will be the only home meet for the PM boys, who will be aiming for their third consecutive district title before going for their third straight Region 1C and Class 1 state titles.
