KERNERSVILLE – (Special from Coach Latter)
Coming into last Saturday’s NCHSAA 1A State Meet, the Swain County girls cross country team had a very simple goal: Place in the top 10. Then an injury forced Tori Swartz, the team’s number five runner, off the course at the one-mile mark. Sophomore Summer Hight, the team’s usual number six runner, saw Swartz stumble off the course. In a race where only five runners on each team score, Hight suddenly was the most important athlete on the course for the Lady Devils.
Hight responded with the race of her life, Swain County placed 9th overall, and the Lady Devil’s dream season ended with a fairy tale ending.
Blair Allman set the tone for the Lady Devils from the gun. Taking advantage of the relatively flat course, Allman set a hard, steady pace that saw her in the main chase pack from the race’s onset, a radical departure from her usual patient strategy. That controlled aggression was infectious; each Swain runner recorded a lifetime best on Saturday. Allman’s time of 21:39 on the lightning fast Beeson Park course was good enough for 41st place. Close behind was Lauren Shell, who recorded a 21:54 en route to a 49th place finish. Erin Zwick showed that her stellar performance at the 1A West Regional Meet was no fluke, closing hard over the last half of the race to finish in 22:08 (54th), while Autumn Demonet came up big by running 22:40 (67th place) in her final cross country race.
No performer, however, had a bigger day than Hight. Coming into Saturday’s meet, the sophomore’s personal best stood at 26:28. She obliterated that mark, dropping nearly two minutes off that time en route to a 24:39 (107th place). That tremendous finish allowed Swain to stay in the hunt for a top 8 finish all the way until the end, a remarkable feat given the loss of Swartz. Abbe Kirby also ran a lifetime best of 27:13 to round out Swain’s performance.
Bishop McGuinness won the 1A women’s race with a score of 58, followed by Lincoln Charter (83) and Lake Norman Charter (91). Swain’s 9th place finish (251 points) placed them third amongst all traditional public schools in 1A. Conference rival Hayesville placed 12th.
Full results can be found at: http://nc.milesplit.com/meets/120854/results/226909
