KERNERSVILLE — Jack Anstrom hit the sack last Friday night, hoping for a restful night’s sleep, a good breakfast and a little fun the next day. As it turned out, the frosty wind wasn’t the only thing having a blast on Saturday.
The Seaforth freshman finished second in the men’s NCHSAA 2A Cross Country State Championships with a time of 16:24.09, about six seconds behind the winner, Brevard senior Knox Witherspoon (16:17.70). It was the best time for a freshman in all eight races, men and women, at Ivey M. Redmon Sports Complex.
“It’s really cool to think about it,” Anstrom said of being a state silver medalist his freshman year. “I can go out and high-five some people” at school, he said, bringing respect and hopefully a winning culture to a school that just opened in August.
He was particularly pleased that all members of the team qualified for states, and that the men finished in eighth place.
“He’s a special, special runner,” said Seaforth men’s head coach Duncan Murrell.
“We’re going to be the first team to put a trophy in the (school) trophy case,” Murrell said of his squad, which has no upperclassmen. “Honestly, our 9th and 10th graders are among the best in the state in 2A, if not the best. This is going to be a team to be reckoned with for sure.”
Overall, the Chatham County delegation featured six runners among the individual top 10 in their respective classifications, along with one top-20 finish.
Northwood senior Caroline Murrell finished highest among county girls, capturing third with a time of 18:45.04 in the 3A women’s race. Chatham Charter senior Brandon McKoy finished fourth at 16:57.43 and Woods Charter junior Wiley Sikes finished eighth at 17:16.08 in the 1A men’s race. In the 1A women’s race, Woods Charter sophomore Ellie Poitras finished fifth with a time of 20:37.19, while teammate Maddie Sparrow finished seventh at 20:52.26. Northwood senior Colin Henry rounded out the county’s top-20 performances with a 16th place finish in the 3A men’s race with a time of 16:40.85.
Besides Seaforth, the Northwood men (fifth in 3A, 197 points) and Woods Charter women (eighth in 1A, 178) finished with top-10 team performances. The Woods Charter (12th in 1A, 256) and Chatham Charter (14th in 1A, 280) men and Northwood women (11th in 3A, 307) finished among the top 20 teams in their classifications.
Several Chatham runners blamed the raw conditions for sub-par performances. Temperatures didn’t climb above 50 degrees until shortly before noon, after the 1A and 3A races, as a steady wind with gusts up to 16 mph made it feel even colder.
“This was a challenge today,” said Duncan Murrell, who also is the father of Northwood’s Caroline Murrell. “The kids had a lot of gut checks out there on the course today.”
Anstrom designed his strategy after observing the frigid conditions.
“I was trying to hold back,” he said. “I was thinking maybe kick. I definitely wanted to draft out of the start. That headwind was getting a lot of people. I just got it into my mind if there’s going to be a headwind at the start, there’s going to be a backwind at the finish.”
“Jack had a big, smart race,” Murrell said. “He let those upperclassmen lead him through most of that race, and then he got up there with about 1,200 meters to go and pushed them, made them make it an honest race.”
In the process, Anstrom passed junior Andrew Parker of N.C. School of Science & Math, who has always beaten Anstrom before.
Anstrom said a little confusion was the catalyst for his big kick, and the difference between finishing second and third.
“When I was going into the second stretch where we turned it on, I (mistakenly) thought it was the last stretch,” and he was running out of time to catch up to Parker, he said, so he just went all-out in what he initially thought was a desperation move.
Caroline Murrell — one of the top runners in Northwood history — qualified for states all four years of high school and finished 10th in the 3A state meet last season. Despite hoping for a better time and a better position, she still managed to jump seven spots in this year’s meet with her third-place finish.
“I wouldn’t really say things went according to plan, I was expecting a little better (than bronze),” she said. “It was really windy and really cold. Right at the beginning, I felt my legs and arms were already tired.”
Still, she ended her high school career with a positive attitude.
“I’ve had a lot of highs this past year, which I’m really grateful for,” she said. “I’ve gone sub-18 a couple of times, which is a big deal for me. I know I’m a better runner than I ran today, so it gives me motivation to keep working and learning from my lows.”
“Caroline getting third was pretty huge,” said Northwood head coach Cameron Isenhour. “She put everything she had out there. She’s done phenomenal. She’s won Friday Night Lights Festival. She’s won the county conference and regional meet, was third at Adidas XC Challenge, was 10th at Great American Cross Country Festival. She’s pretty much done better than any girl in North Carolina so far this season.”
All of her high school accomplishments, including an individual state title in the 3,200-meter run in the 2020 NCHSAA 3A Track and Field State Championships, led to her commitment to run track and cross country at N.C. State next fall.
Henry, the Chargers’ top men’s runner, was feeling upbeat after his top 20 finish on the men’s side.
“It’s definitely an improvement from last year, at least 15 spots,” Henry said. “This is a tough course for me, so to come out in the last race of the season and do better on it, I’m happy with that.”
Isenhour said the Northwood men should be proud of their fifth-place team finish.
“We were seeded sixth, so that’s great breaking seed,” he said. “We’ll be back next year, bigger, better, faster, stronger.”
Poitras finished fourth at last season’s state meet with a faster time, but kept her fifth-place finish in cold conditions in perspective.
“This was close to my season best,” Poitras said. “It was not my favorite (course), but there’s little hills I can use and I’m best at hills. I use it as a power-up, and on straightaways, I push myself closer to the people in front of me.”
“I’m very proud of myself, proud of our team,” said Sparrow, who finished 21st as a freshman two years ago. “We gave it our best, and that’s what really matters.”
Sikes finished 27th as a freshman two years ago, but didn’t compete last year because his father had a false-positive COVID test that required him to quarantine and miss qualifiers for regionals. He came back with something to prove.
“This course has a tendency to trick you in that first mile,” Sikes said. “Everybody goes out really fast, and it’s like a fake flat. There are little hills all over the place and if you don’t work it on those hills, you’re going to slow down. I didn’t do that last time. This time it really helped me.”
The Woods Charter women were coming off a sixth-place finish last year, a school best, and head coach Karen Hawkins was pleased to capture another top 10 spot this year. This year’s race also marked the first time that Woods Charter has had three all-state finishers.
She said it’s tough filling rosters because school enrollment is small. Several of the top men’s runners also play on the school’s soccer team, many of which were involved in the team’s second-round playoff game last Thursday night that went into grueling double overtime, so they might not have been at peak form on Saturday.
“We think everyone gave their best today, and a lot of our runners had never been here before,” Hawkins said, but they didn’t let their nerves rattle them. “We’re hoping to come back next year so the young ones can keep that tradition going.”
McKoy was hoping to medal, but acknowledged his all-state finish was no easy task.
He spent the early part of the season at Governor’s School of North Carolina and missed out on team practices. So, he started a running club at the school. Later, he tested positive for COVID-19 and had to sit out for a while.
“But I bounced back and I really just tried to focus on building myself up and doing a lot of conditioning,” McKoy said.
The four-time state qualifier, who finished eighth last year, said his strategy on Saturday was to begin his kick the last 1,000 meters.
“I went, I think, from around seventh or eighth into fourth, so I was just trying to knock off people in the last mile,” McKoy said. “That’s the first time I’ve gone sub-17 since my sophomore year.”
He appeared happy with his final season, noting that after finishes at No. 7, No. 2, and No. 3 in the 1A East Regional over his first three seasons, he finally won it this year.
“He did awesome,” said coach and mother LaShawn LaFranque. “He always puts the work in. We’re so proud of him.”