Pirates' Foil wins cross country meet at Luther Britt Park
Sep. 1—LUMBERTON — For a few moments Wednesday afternoon, Matthew Foil was off course during a United-8 Conference cross country meet at Luther Britt Park in Lumberton.
"(I panicked) a good amount. I was like 'oh crap, oh crap,'" Foil said. "I started sprinting, and then I was good; I turned around and I still had my good lead, I was fine. And I knew I was going to win this race."
Foil did win, running the five-kilometer distance in 21 minutes, 10 seconds to beat a field composed of the Pirates, Purnell Swett and South View.
Purnell Swett's Chase McNeill finished second at 21:52. South View's Ziven Valentin was third at 21:59 and the Tigers' Dakota Hamilton placed fourth in 24:00. Purnell Swett's Lonnie Maynor rounded out the top five in 25:00.
"I like to pace myself behind maybe the top two people, top three, so I know the pace that everyone else is going," Foil said. "I keep my pace, because I know everybody else is going to slow down. If they don't slow down, I increase my pace just in little bits, where I can still beat the person, and I catch my lead and just keep gaining and gaining."
Purnell Swett won the team competition as the Rams were the only team with enough runners to post a score.
In the girls race, South View's Zoe Dorsey won in 21:56, ahead of runner-up Kylie Chavis from Purnell Swett, who finished in 25:37.
"Great job to her that was in front of me, she did really well," Chavis said. "At the beginning she got in front of me, and so I was just trying to pace a little bit off her, but she got so far away from me. But I kept pushing it and pushing it until I got to the finish, but she pushed it the whole way."
Lumberton runners finished in third and fourth — Addie Billingsly in 30:05 and Gabryelle Locklear in 31:47. Those finishes led Lumberton to the win in the team competition; the Pirates finished with 23 points to the Rams' 32. South View did not have enough runners to post a score.
Lela Locklear from Purnell Swett was fifth in 33:10.
The race took place in hot conditions, leaving competitors drenched in sweat by the end of the race.
"I could feel it right out of the gate, as soon as I stood in that sun," Foil said. "I just kept with what my training is, kept running, and I finished out first."
Early season results at events like Wednesday's meet give athletes an idea how they stand as they prepare for the meat of the season.
"After this I'm probably going to train a lot harder, and run my fastest the whole time, so I can see exactly where I'm at," Chavis said. "I got tired halfway through, and that can't happen. I've got to push it the whole way through. And it's going to prepare me for basketball, I'm really excited (about that)."
Chris Stiles can be reached at 910-816-1977 or by email at cstiles@robesonian.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @StilesOnSports.
