Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Randolph-Henry Boys’ and Girls’ Cross Country teams’ district competition came to a close on Wednesday, Oct. 20. at home as Randolph-Henry hosted the James River District Championships.

Entering the day, both teams were undefeated in the district, having won twice at home and picking up wins on the road at Nottoway and Amelia.

In the girls’ division, Randolph-Henry brought home the district title with a score of 38 over the runners-up Buckingham Knights with a score of 57. Top scoring runners for the Statesmen were sophomore Mariam Robindolph who took 2nd place overall, Emily Tharpe 4th, Misha Clark 6th, Taylor Trent 11th and Abigail Dixon 15th. Also running for the girls included Nika’ Daniel, Rhettia Rose and Zoey Walker. Robindolph, Tharpe, Clark and Trent earned All-James River District honors for their performances.

Over the last 3 seasons, the girls’ team program has been in development. The team was unable to field a five-member scoring team each of the last two years and this combined with the youth of the squad makes the ladies’ accomplishment all that more notable. Four of the seven competitors from Wednesday are first-year runners, and all but two are 10th grade or younger.

“The girls’ progression this season has been steady, but they really drove the point home Wednesday with some great individual performances and several personal best times that picked up crucial spots that kept the opposing teams out of contention,” Coach Joshua Guill said.

In the boys’ division, the Statesmen were able to claim 2nd place against a tough field. Despite all-district performances from Senior Tanner Adams (2nd overall), Jefferson Duffey and Jaime Perez-Cruz, the Statesmen fell to an impressive Prince Edward squad who posted a team score of 33 on their way to a district title. Also running for Randolph-Henry Wednesday were David Terrones-Lara, Luke Jennings, Michael Davis and Seth Robindolph.

“We didn’t have our best race individually or as a team, and Prince Edward’s top five times were great by any standard. It was a humbling loss for an undefeated team, but good teams need competition to get better. I know the guys will use this as motivation moving forward to regions in a few weeks,” Guill said.

Both boys’ and girls’ teams will travel to Bruton High School in Williamsburg on Nov. 2. to compete in the Region 2A Championships.

At that contest, the top three teams from the region will move on to the state championship as well as the top five overall runners not on those qualifying teams.