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Saturday, Nov. 11 – Parry McCluer High School senior Kovyk Chandler won his first individual state cross country championship to lead the Fighting Blues to the team title at the Class 1 state meet on Saturday afternoon at Green Hill Park in Salem.
Chandler pulled away from the other top runners in the second half of the race to win, finishing the flat 5-kilometer course in a time of 15 minutes, 54.1 seconds. Last year, Chandler placed second at the state meet, and he finished third as a sophomore.
Following Chandler closely in second place was his younger brother, Kebryl, a freshman who passed two runners in the final sprint to finish in a personal-record (PR) time of 15:59.1. Grundy’s Keyston Hartford placed third of 99 harriers in 16:06.2.
Also earning all-state honors for the Blues by placing in the top 15 were sophomores Logan Wheelock and Josh Cooper. Wheelock finished seventh in 16:44.6, a PR, while Cooper came in 12th in 17:30.4. Completing the scoring for PM was freshman Sam Carpenter, who finished 52nd in 19:11.1. Also racing for the Blues was sophomore Caden Mason (99th, 27:48.8).
In the team standings, the Blues scored 61 points to beat runner-up Mathews, which placed second of 12 teams with 79 points. Altavista placed third with 119 points, while Eastern Montgomery (122) and Auburn (136) rounded out the top five.
This was the PM boys’ third state cross country title in five years. The Blues won in 2019 and in the spring 2021 season, delayed from the fall 2020 due to COVID-19, when Kovyk Chandler was PM’s fourth runner as a freshman.
The Blues had one runner in the girls’ race, sophomore Kyra Lee, who placed 21st of 96 harriers in 22:06.9, about 53 seconds faster than her time on the course at last year’s state meet, when she finished 23rd.
Galileo’s Carol-Anne Garrettt won the girls’ race in 19:03.7, leading Galileo to the team title with 67 points. George Wythe (85) placed second of 11 teams, Mathews (111) finished third, and Patrick Henry-Glade Spring (140) and Auburn (144) rounded out the top five.
PM will graduate just two runners, Kovyk Chandler from the boys’ team and Jasmine De Souza from the girls’ team. Many of the Blues plan to run indoor and outdoor track.
For the full story and photos, with comments from PM head coach Chris Poluikis and several of the runners, please see our Nov. 15 newspaper.
