Polk boys, Godlock, Kocher earn state cross country trips at 2A regional meet
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QRL6BePDvk[/youtube]
Sean Doyle recorded a fourth-place finish and Mitchell Brown and Jacob Wolfe each finished in the top 20 at Saturday’s 2A West Regional to help Polk County’s boys cross country team earn a berth in next week’s state 2A meet.
Polk County placed fourth, just one point behind Lake Norman Charter School, to advance to the state 2A meet on Saturday in Kernersville.
The Polk County girls squad finished fifth in the regional for the second straight year, just missing a team berth. But individuals India Godlock and Emily Kocher were among the top five individuals not on a qualifying team and thus qualified for the state meet.
Doyle, a junior, posted a time of 16:59.57, the winning time being the 16:07.07 of Maiden’s Corbin Boyles. Shelby’s Blanton Gillespie and Madison’s Noah Allison placed second and third, with the top three runners all being seniors.
Brown placed 17th in 17:40.10 and Wolfe placed 20th in 17:54.40. Polk County senior Mark Federman finished 26th in a time of 18:25.75, with freshman Al Russell wrapping up the scoring for Polk County with a 77th place finish in a time of 19:40.40. Also running for Polk were freshman Connor Holtz (21:10.21) and freshman Luke Collins (25:06.85).
Franklin won the meet with 119 points, followed by Shelby at 132,Lake Norman Charter at 139 and Polk County at 140.
Godlock earned her second straight trip to the state cross country meet with a time of 20:26.94, finshing seventh in the field. Kocher earned her first state appearance with a time of 21:17.08, finishing 14th.
Also competing for Polk County were Selena Chavez (23:36.84), Leah Hardin (23:54.10), Hayley Kropp (23:54.62), Allison Swope (23:55.45) and Savannah Robbins (24:01.37). Kocher and Swope are the only seniors who competed Saturday.
East Lincoln won the regional title with 63 points, just edging Smoky Mountain with 66. Lake Norman Charter finished third with 75 points, followed by Brevard at 102. Polk County was in fifth at 169 points.
The state meet will be held Saturday at Ivy Redmon Park in Kernersville. The boys will race at 10:30 a.m., followed by the girls at 11:30 a.m.