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In their first competition of the season, the Parry McCluer High School cross country runners had strong performances at the Blacksburg Relays on Saturday.
The PM boys placed sixth of 29 squads in the 5 X 2000-meter relay and showed considerable improvement from when they competed at the meet a year ago, as did the individual girls racing.
“It was a great validation that we are in good shape,” said PM head coach Chris Poluikis. “Every single runner we brought improved on their times for this meet from last year. Training-wise, everyone has progressed.”
Blacksburg’s top team won the relay in 32:05.8, and the PM boys finished sixth in 34:07.8, just behind fifth-place Floyd County (33:44.4). “Floyd is one of the teams that I can see winning the [Class 2 state title], and I wanted to beat them,” said Poluikis.
Freshman Sam Carpenter ran the first leg for PM, finishing in 7:37, and senior Kovyk Chandler ran the second leg in 6:22, 15 seconds faster than his time last year. PM’s third runner was sophomore Logan Wheelock (6:41.1), and sophomore Josh Cooper was fourth, finishing in 6:55.6, nearly 40 seconds faster than his time last year. Freshman Kebryl Chandler finished the anchor leg in 6:31.2.
Reviewing the race, Poluikis said, “We put Sam first, who handed us off in 18th place, then Kovyk got us up to 12th. Logan got us up to ninth place, which was maintained by Josh, and Kebryl brought us up to sixth.”
The Blues had three runners in the 2000-meter coed open race, won by Roanoke Valley Christian’s Eric Duncan in 6:26.7.
For the PM girls, senior Jasmine De Souza placed 21st of 78 runners in 8:31, more than a minute faster than last year. Sophomore Kyra Lee followed in 26th place, finishing in 8:42.8, about 40 seconds faster than last year. “Jasmine and Kyra had a good year last year, so for them to be [that much] faster than last year is a great sign,” said Poluikis.
Sophomore Caden Mason competed for the PM boys, finishing in 9:04.9. Next up the Blues will take part in the Knights Crossing XC Invitational at Green Hill Park in Salem on Saturday, Sept. 9.
