Oct. 16, 2023
BY JOHN BAILEY
The 30th annual John F. Hall Catawba County United Way Cross Country Invitational was held last week (Oct. 11) at Southside Park in Newton with 20 area high school teams and 400 runners showing up for another epic day of racing.
It was also a chance to celebrate the 15 service projects completed by teams prior to the race. This meet tradition encourages local youth to give back to their communities and make acts of kindness a regular part of their daily lives.
And once again, the Rotary Club of Hickory supported this outreach by providing monetary rewards to the top three projects, chosen by an independent panel.
This year’s service project winners were: 1st – T.C. Roberson High; 2nd Alexander Central High and 3rd – Shelby High.
For T.C. Roberson’s winning project, the team made book recommendation bookmarks of their favorite books for the high school’s library. They also created word flash cards for students who receive direct reading instruction at Koontz intermediate school.
John Hall, who originally came up with the idea for the meet, also took time to recognize the three Catawba County cross country coaches who helped him organize and get the event started – Allan Sigmon the former coach at Bandys High School; Bob Sloop the former Hickory High coach and former Bunker Hill High coach Jeff Taylor.
“At the time John (Hall) started the race, there wasn’t anything like this in the area. It was much needed,” Taylor said. “But the unique part started off with bringing in an inspirational message with a speaker, later that morphed into, let’s do something. Let’s give back,” Taylor said. “That aspect of it, I haven’t seen in any other meet and makes it a really special thing for all the kids in the area that get to compete.”
On the cross country course, Blake Nicholson from Christ the King Catholic School finished first in the boys’ championship meet with a time of 15:47.55, the best time since 2018 when Michel Zapherson from T.C. Roberson posted a time of 15:43.
The rest of the top 5 runners in this year’s boys’ championship meet were:
2nd Hudson Rice, West Henderson, 16:28.22;
3rd Roscoe Greene, West Henderson, 17:12.25;
4th Conner Frizzell, University Christian High, 17:21.28;
5th Mason Roberts, Christ the King Catholic, 17:32.31.
It was a big finish in the girls’ championship race as well with Breanna Budzinski of West Henderson crossing the line first with a time of 18:07.44. It is the best time since 2015 when Anna Vess from A.C. Reynolds posted a time of 18:05.
The rest of the top 5 runners in the girls’ championship were:
2nd Nicole Alfers, Christ the King Catholic, 18:30.50;
3rd Sydney Moss, T.C. Roberson, 19:13.56;
4th Shea Roche, Christ the King Catholic, 19:14.99;
5th Noelle Houlihan, West Henderson 19:17.33.
Top 5 boys’ invitational meet:
1 Damon Cook 11 Shelby 17:18.36 1
2 Sean Reed 10 Bandys 17:18.47 1
3 Gabe Wykle 11 Patton 17:56.09 1
4 Steven Morgan 10 Shelby 18:11.26 1
5 Isaac Carroll 11 Bandys 18:13.07 1
Top 5 girls’ invitational meet:
1 Charlotte Rigsbee 11 Patton 21:33.04 1
2 Lexi Mathews 11 Bandys 21:50.34 1
3 Adleigh Sutton 11 West Lincoln 22:04.19 1
4 Marina Zavala-Medina 10 St. Stephens 22:52.41 1
5 Leah Kirksey 11 Freedom 22:56.92 1
Complete results at - https://nc.milesplit.com/meets/566589-united-way-cc-invitational-2023/results/976130/raw.
The United Way would like to thank all of this year’s sponsors: Big Kahuna Timing, CT Management, Century Furniture, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Frye Regional Medical Center, Hickory Metro Sports, Hamilton & Herring Orthodontics, Rotary Club of Hickory, Premier Screen Printing & Promotions, Publix, Sharp Business Systems, Highways and Hedges Ministries, Pepsi, Catawba County EMS, City of Newton Recreation Department and Lenoir-Rhyne University Cross Country Team.
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