CLEMMONS
Chapel Hill's superior depth made all the difference in yesterday's NCHSAA Class 3-A cross-country championships at Tanglewood. The Tigers lived up to their reputation as a dominant program and pulled off a sweep in winning the boys and girls team titles.
"It was a very good day for us," said Ron Olsen, who coaches both Chapel Hill squads. "Our girls ran so well. The boys could've done better. But I never thought their margin (of victory) would be as large as it turned out to be."
The boys scored 54 points to win by 48 points. Jacob Hoerger (10th place) was the only Tigers runner to make All-State, but Chapel Hill had five other runners who finished in the top 18.
That same formula worked well for the girls, who won by 52 point. An individual title eluded Three Tigers got All-State honors (Tristan Van Ord, fifth; Sarah-Jane Kerwin, sixth; and Ahna Weeks, ninth).
Individually, there were few surprises. Jake Hurysz of Eastern Alamance capped a superb season, winning the boys race in 15 minutes, 49.77 seconds. Hurysz put on a strong kick over the final 800 meters.
"Winning today was more difficult than I thought it would be," Hurysz said. "Chris Colo (second-place finisher) ran an amazing race, he really surprised me. It wasn't until the race was almost over that I felt sure that I would win."
In the girls race, Sarah Rapp of Cardinal Gibbons was locked in a two-way battle for the lead with Beth Hanson of Wilson Fike. Both were in position to make their move over the final quarter-mile, but Hanson's chance at victory vanished when one of her shoes came off. Rapp, a junior, continued to push the pace and clocked 19 minutes, 29.5 seconds to win comfortably over Hanson, who finished second.
"I didn't feel the race was mine until near the end with about 300 meters to go," Rapp said.
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