Durham Herald Sun:
Chapel Hill doubles up at 4-A meet
By MAC HEFFNER : The Herald-Sun CLEMMONS -- Second place just wasn't good enough for the Chapel Hill girls' and boys' cross country teams. So, the Tigers returned to Tanglewood Park on Saturday and pulled off a sweep of the state 4-A championships. Both the girls' and boys' teams were ranked atop the 4-A coaches poll throughout the entire season, and it was the third boys-girls sweep in school history. Chapel Hill also pulled off the feat in 1980-81. The Chapel Hill boys posted a score of 69, besting Southern Pines Pinecrest by a point, while Charlotte Myers Park came in a distant third with 128. The East Chapel Hill boys, a two-time state 3-A champ making its 4-A debut, finished fifth. The Chapel Hill girls' team placed its five top runners in the top 22 to give the Tigers a 27-point win over Charlotte Providence, 87-60. Junior Becky Johnson ran the Tigers' best finish in 19:30, good enough for seventh place. Adrienne Wollman (19:46) was ninth, freshman Kristina Witcher (20:12) was 16th, Lindsay Clendaniel (20:27) was 20th, Madison Stark (20:30) was 22nd. However, the sweep started when the boys' team took to the course. Senior Jack Bolas, last week's 4-A Mideast regional champ, edged rival Sandy Roberts of Raleigh Broughton again after beating him last week at the Mideast regionals, but this time in a dash to the finish. Bolas trailed entering the final 175 meters, but with a burst of speed and the screams of Coach Ron Olsen, the media-shy Bolas pulled ahead for a five-second win as Roberts lost steam at the end of the 3.1-mile course. Bolas posted a 15:33, while teammate Ryan Workman (15:52) was third and fellow senior Duncan Hoge (16:14) was seventh, despite running the race with a lingering, severe cold. Olsen said that he knew Bolas had the kick to overtake Roberts, but it was a matter of being in position to catch him. "Jack's got a heck of a kick -- he just has to be close enough to use it," Olsen said. "I was standing out there thinking, 'Move now, and it's over.' " It was, even though Bolas said he didn't think he could catch Roberts. "I didn't think I had him," Bolas said with a poker face. "He wasn't running any faster, and I just caught him. "This was a completely different race [than the regional]. I didn't think I was going to pass him." It happened, and Roberts said he wasn't shocked at all. "Jack had a good race, and I pushed it from the gun and I just didn't have quite enough to break him," the runner-up said. "He was just able to take me at the end, but I gave it my all. "I tried to break him and I didn't. With 50 meters to go, I knew he was going to catch me. It's hard to lose at the state meet, but you have to put that behind you and move on to national races." Even after winning a state title, which eluded Bolas last year when he was second to Roberts at Tanglewood, there was something missing. "I couldn't celebrate the individual title until I knew the team won," Bolas said. No problem, Jack. The No. 25 team in The Harrier Magazine got the job done, after coming four points short last season. It marked Chapel Hill's second boys' state title in four seasons and its sixth overall. The girls also increased their overall title haul to six. It marked the Tigers' first girls' state championship since 1987. Both titles made Olsen smile. "It's very cool," he said. |
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