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Led by freshman Kebryl Chandler’s individual victory, the Parry McCluer High School boys cross country team won the Pioneer District title last Wednesday at Glen Maury Park.
It was the first time since the spring 2021 season, delayed from the fall due to COVID-19, that the Fighting Blues won the title as a team. For the last two fall seasons, the Blues did not have the minimum number (five) of athletes required for a team score.
Last Wednesday, the Blues scored 27 points to edge Eastern Montgomery’s 28. PM and EM were the only two schools with full squads. “All of the matchups between us and Eastern Montgomery were close, and what it really came down to was we won three out of five matchups,” said PM head coach Chris Poluikis. “It was good for our boys to win that.”
Commenting on his team’s performance, Poluikis said, “To our credit, it wasn’t our best race, and with that it was probably the best I have ever seen Eastern Montgomery run.”
The Blues had four runners who finished in the top seven, and EM had five runners in the top nine.
Senior Kovyk Chandler, who was a freshman when the Blues last won the district team title, won the last two individual Pioneer District titles, but it was his younger brother, Kebryl, who crossed the line first in the 3-mile race. Kebryl finished in 16 minutes, 54.11 seconds, breaking Kovyk’s course record by about a second. The course is mostly flat but has one challenging hill that runners go up twice EM’s Spencer Sisson placed second of 20 runners in 16:58.29, and Kovyk finished third in 17:02.63.
After EM runners took the next two spots, PM sophomore Josh Cooper placed sixth in 17:42.88, and sophomore teammate Logan Wheelock finished seventh in 18:10.08.
“Logan won his matchup as our fourth guy by almost a minute, but there was no one in between him and his matchup,” said Poluikis. “That’s tough because that’s still only one point.”
Also cracking the top 10 for the Blues and earning all-district honors by placing in the top 15 was freshman Sam Carpenter, placing 10th in 20:15.09. The Blues’ final runner was sophomore Caden Mason, coming in 20th in 28:26.41.
In the girls’ race, EM was the only school with a full team and won the race with a perfect score of 15 points.
Bath County’s Natalie White was the individual winner, crossing the line in 21:07.15.
Senior Jasmine De Souza led the Blues, placing second of 11 harriers in 22:24.77. EM’s Aija McHone followed in third in 22:28.38, and PM sophomore Kyra Lee placed fourth in 22:28.43.
Pleased with both De Souza and Lee, Poluikis said, “They ran really well in the meet. They had started the meet in fourth and sixth place and made up a lot of ground.”
The Blues were scheduled to compete in the Region 1C meet at Blacksburg High School on Monday, with the top three teams and the top five individuals outside of those teams advancing to the Class 1 state meet, which will take place on Saturday, Nov. 11 at Green Hill Park in Salem. For updates, visit www.thenews-gazette.com, and see next week’s newspaper for the full story on the regional meet.
