May River’s Cohen MacDonald and Anna Arroyo swept the boys and girls races at the Battle of Camden on Saturday, leading the Sharks to a dominant cross country season debut.
The girls’ squad easily took the team title, scoring an impressive 44 points and placing three runners in the top four en route to a 28-point margin over second-place Wilson Hall. Arroyo was unstoppable on the trail, blazing past the competition in a time of 19:32.76 and finishing nearly 46 seconds ahead of teammate and runner-up Victoria Sosa (20:18.74). Ashlyn Babkiewicz notched a fourth-place finish (20:46.35), and Caroline Stickler was 13th (22:41.08). Seventh-grader Brookelynne Daugherty impressed for Battery Creek, clocking in with a time of 26:52.87.
MacDonald outlasted a talented group at the front in the boys’ race, taking a one-second victory with a mark of 17:38.81 and helping the Sharks earn second overall with 73 points. Despite MacDonald’s heroics alongside a fifth-place showing from Noah Wasserman (18:21.98) and a ninth-place finish from Matthew Tisdell (18:51.20), a quartet of AC Flora runners in the top 10 including two in the top four lifted the Falcons to the title at 55 points. Battery Creek wrestler Gunnar DeGroat put together a stellar race, finishing 28th to pace the Dolphins (20:45.43).
The Sharks, Dolphins, and other Lowco squads will be back in action Saturday at the USCB High School Cross Country Invitational in Bluffton.
By Wes Kerr
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