Hayesville Girls take First, Boys Finish Fourth at Cherokee Cross Country Meet

CHEROKEE — The Hayesville High School cross country teams turned in strong performances Wednesday at Cherokee High School, with the Lady Yellow Jackets winning the girls team championship and the Hayesville boys placing fourth in the team standings.

The Hayesville girls finished with 34 points and a combined scoring time of 2:17:52, comfortably ahead of second-place Cherokee, which scored 40 points. Robbinsville finished third with 50 points.

Makenna Moss

Freshman Makenna Moss led the way for Hayesville, winning the girls 5,000-meter race with a time of 22:38.6.

Marlo Joyce was the next Hayesville runner across the finish line, placing 15th overall in 27:58.3. Annie Godfrey finished 18th in 28:54.4, followed closely by Caroline Wade in 19th at 29:00.7 and Lily Gordon in 20th at 29:19.6.

Those five runners gave Hayesville the low score needed to claim the team victory.

Other Hayesville finishers included Libbie Moore in 28th place at 31:49.5, Kaelyn Cook in 29th at 31:49.9, Zoe Angelopoulos in 41st at 38:31.0, and Izzy Hall in 43rd at 41:55.3.

On the boys side, Hayesville finished fourth among seven scoring teams with 90 points and a combined scoring time of 1:51:32.

Eli Cheeks led the Yellow Jackets with a sixth-place overall finish, completing the 5,000 meters in 19:23.9. Parker Hughes followed in seventh place with a time of 19:50.3, giving Hayesville two runners in the top 10.

Evan Burks finished 18th overall in 22:09.8, while Brandon Prieto-Rivera placed 30th in 23:53.5. Gage Brown rounded out Hayesville's five scoring runners, finishing 44th overall in 26:14.0.

Robbinsville won the boys team competition with 54 points, followed by Cherokee with 63 and Hiwassee Dam with 83. Hayesville finished fourth with 90 points, narrowly ahead of Swain County, which scored 92.

Additional Hayesville boys finishers were Robert Manning, 53rd in 28:21.0; Nate Cook, 54th in 28:27.9; Archie Galloway, 67th in 40:51.0; Ayden Cannon, 69th in 45:01.5; and Matteo Colandrea, 70th in 47:01.3.

Next up for Hayesville runners is a meet at Swain County High School on Saturday, Sept.12.