BOONE — Shelby Hyatt turned in a performance to remember and the Lady Devils followed her in a wake in finishing 8th out of 15 teams at the High Country Classic in Boone on Saturday.
Using her patented strategy, Hyatt unleashed a furious kick over the last half mile to place 17th overall in the highly competitive meet made up 
of teams from North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Hyatt finished only 7 seconds out of the top 10 with her time of 21:31 and found herself surrounded by athletes from 3A and 4A schools at the finish.
Lauren Shell ran 13 seconds faster than last year’s performance to finish 35th overall in a time of 22:47, while Madison Travitz gutted out an illness to finish 64th in 23:56. Erin Zwick (72nd – 24:39), Serina Holt (77th – 25:11), Kylie Pond (86th – 25:48) and Haley Cooper (91st – 25:59) also competed well for Swain.
Led by senior Russell Bigmeat, the boys cross country team placed 15th out of 19 teams at the same meet. Bigmeat’s time of 18:34 earned him 47th place honors. Parker Chatham (78th – 19:35), Ira Smart (93rd – 20:12), Sam Dickson (98th – 20:33), Brett Treadway (104th – 20:53), Darren Blankenship (113th – 21:14) and Ryan Bennett (122nd – 21:57) all performed well for Swain.
Both teams return to action Wednesday at Hiwassee Dam.
Full results can be found here for the girls: http://nc.milesplit.com/meets/146487/results/263950.
The boys results can be found here: http://nc.milesplit.com/meets/146487/results/263951