Sept. 1

Newberry Academy

The Newberry Academy cross-country team kicked off its 2009 season with a meet at Hammond Academy in Columbia, Tuesday, Sept. 1. The course at Hammond is challenging, taking a winding route through the woods and across athletic fields before reaching the finish line. Fourteen runners for Newberry Academy participated, with every runner posting a personal best time for the 3.1 mile race. Thirteen other SCISA schools participated from all over the Midlands with more than 250 runners ranging from grades five through 12.

Derek Sligh was the fastest varsity boy runner with a time of 20:57, while the fastest junior varsity boy was Jonah Diener posting a 24:03. The best junior varsity girls time was claimed by Emily Senn with a 27:34.

Coaches Scott Gardner and Janet McEntire both stated that they were very pleased with the outstanding effort and accomplishment of every member of the team. This is only the second year that Newberry Academy has been involved in cross-country and most of the runners this year are new to the sport.

The Newberry Academy team will participate in at least three more meets during the month of September, with the state meet being held at Heathwood Hall in Columbia on Oct. 31 at 9 a.m.

Sept. 12

Newberry College

The Newberry College men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at the Wingate Invitational on the campus of Wingate University on Saturday morning.

The Newberry men’s squad finished in sixth place at a meet that featured 10 Division-II programs. The scarlet and gray finished with a combined score of 153; 22 points lower than South Atlantic Conference foe and seventh place Catawba College.

Newberry’s Brad House finished in 16th place individually with a time of 29:55 with a mile pace of 6:01. Senior Felipe Sobrinho placed 30th, running 4.96 miles in a total time of 31:44.

Freshman Reinel Licea finished just three spots behind Sobrinho in 33rd with a time of 31:58. Senior Seth Utley placed 37th rounding out his meet at 32:44 and senior Ty Skinner came in 40th place at 33:05.

The Newberry women entered two runners in the women’s race. Senior Ashton Sullivan (Barnwell, S.C.) finished in 40th at 31:19. Fellow senior Jennifer Johnson (Mt. Pleasant, S.C.) ran a time of 32:01 and finished in 48th.

The women’s team did not have enough participants to qualify for the final team standings.