Blues Place Four Harriers In Top Seven
With four runners in the top seven, the Parry McCluer High School boys cross country team won the Pioneer District meet last Wednesday afternoon at Camp Alta Mons in Shawsville.
The Fighting Blues scored 30 points, while last year’s district champion, host Eastern Montgomery, placed second of three teams with 46 points, edging Narrows (47). All three teams will advance to the Region 1C meet. At last year’s district meet, PM rested its top five runners.
EM junior Grayson Welcher won the race, completing the hilly 5-kilometer course in 17 minutes, 4.04 seconds.
The Blues had an average pace of 20:25. Junior Caleb Cooper led PM, placing second of 18 harriers in 18:30.22. Junior teammate Sebastian George followed in third in 18:40.64.
PM head coach Chris Poluikis said, in Class 1, Welcher is “the second-fastest kid in the state. Coming back from injury, I do think Caleb is starting to make some ground on catching up to him, though.”
Other Blues in the top seven were senior Sam Carpenter (sixth, 21:17.21) and sophomore Matthew Cooper (seventh, 21:17.31). Poluikis said that both harriers ran the race as a workout, alternating two minutes at a high pace and two minutes at a lower pace.
PM senior Kebryl Chandler, the defending Class 1 state champion, took it easy and placed 12th in 22:21.33, pacing sophomore teammate Victor Poluikis (13th, 22:21.92), who set a personal record. “Kebryl has still been training hard this week,” said Poluikis. “He has to stay in peak shape for longer, so the day before this race, he had a hard training session. He and Victor ran it at a tempo.”
The Blues’ final runner was sophomore Seven Medina (17th, 25:18).
The Blues were scheduled to race in the Region 1C meet yesterday at Blacksburg High School. The top three teams and the top five individuals outside of those teams advanced to the Class 1 state meet, which is scheduled for next Saturday, Nov. 7, at Green Hill Park in Salem.
