Midlands runners shine at SCISA cross country state championship

Madelyn Gomez repeated as state champion and the Heathwood Hall girls won cross country SCISA 3A team title on Saturday.

Hammond’s Reece Bluestein was the SCISA 3A boys individual champion at the event held at Heathwood Hall.

Gomez, a sophomore, finished with a time of 18:55 and won by almost a minute over Ashley Ailish Ward. Hammond seventh grader Megan Joye (19:55) was third. Heathwoods Lydia Smith (19:58) was fifth and Annabel Martin (20:12) was ninth. Hammond’s Camille Kristinik (20:06) was seventh and Ben Lippen’s Chloe Davis (20:11) was eighth.

The Highlanders finished with 49 points and Porter-Gaud was second with 96. Hammond was third with 99 points.

Bluestein, a sophomore, won the boys race with a time of 16:48. Porter-Gaud’s Kayden Pryor-Robinson was second with 17:07. Heathwood Hall had three runners in the top 10 - Jackson Engh (5th, 17:16), Matthew Black (176th, 17:20) and ninth-place Hugh Wilcox (17:13). Ben Lippens Samari Van Horn (17:24) was seventh and Luke McCrudden (17:32) was 10th.

Porter-Gaud finished with 45 points to win the team title by two points over Heathwood Hall and four over Ben Lippen. Hammond was fifth with 133.

Northside Christian’s Kendall Murray (21:10) was ninth in SCISA 2A girls race and the Crusaders finished fourth.

In the SCISA Class A girls race, Ileanna Derrick was fifth

This story was originally published October 30, 2021 at 1:28 PM.