Cross-Country: Ardrey Kell boys, girls rule at 4A regionals

Senior Murphy Smith finished 12 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor Friday and led Ardrey Kell to the boys’ 4A Western Regional cross-country championship.

The school’s girls’ team made it a sweep, easily winning its regional meet.

The Knights will lead a Charlotte-area contingent to next Friday’s state meet at the Ivey Redmon Complex in Kernersville.

Murphy, who finished fourth in the state championship meet last season, covered the 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) course at McAlpine Greenway Park in a time of 15 minutes 47.3 seconds.

Second, in 15:59.7, was junior Griffin Horner of Lake Norman.

Mooresville and Lake Norman also qualified for the boys’ 4A state meet.

The top three teams, plus the top four individual runners not from a qualifying team, run in the state championship.

Boys’ meet: Ardrey Kell easily won, with 29 points to runner-up Mooresville’s 68. Rounding out the team scores were Lake Norman (78), Providence (81), South Mecklenburg (87), Hough (169), South Caldwell (199) and Hopewell (214).

Ardrey Kell had three of the top five finishers, with senior Griffin Cascone running third and senior Steven Smith fifth. The Knights’ Raghav Gopalakrishnan ran eighth, as the fastest freshman in the race. Also scoring for the Knights was 12th-place Nicholas Grace.

Lake Norman’s scoring (top five from the team) runners were Horner, fourth-place Gavin Sweeney, Dalton Graves, Brad Mankus and Jaidan McClure. Mooresville’s five scoring runners were Tanner Smith, Noah Dunn, Clark Kremar, Cooper Stissel and Andrew Lanning.

The four runners qualifying for the state meet as individuals were: Wick Hatch (Providence), sixth place; Alec McMillan (South Mecklenburg), ninth; Caleb Roesch (South Mecklenburg), 10th; and Maximous Lira (South Mecklenburg), 13th.

Girls’ meet: Lake Norman sophomore Madeline Stolberg won the race in 18:35.1, edging Ardrey Kell sophomore Anna Wells, in 18:41.9. But Ardrey Kell took the team title with 25 points, well ahead of South Mecklenburg (69), Hough (82), Mooresville (95), Lake Norman (115), Mallard Creek (150) and South Caldwell (197).

Ardrey Kell’s top five runners were Wells, freshman Emily Boland in fifth place overall, Jenna Thornton, Linnea Maynard and Taylor Fenton.

South Mecklenburg’s five fastest were Alice Custrini, Lucy Seitz, Larrabee Hoelscher, Maggie Houpt and Caroline Leahy.

And Hough’s top five were junior Lilly Walters (third Friday but second in last year’s state meet), Anna Gardner, Sophia Regina, Riley Greene and Leah Ritchey.

Qualifying as individuals were Stolberg; Providence’s Bennett Key; Mooresville’s Sami Hornburger; and Olympic’s Natalia Martin.

Steve Lyttle on Twitter: @slyttle