Photo from Union County High School Facebook

The Union County Cross Country team claimed victory in the Tri-County Early College Meet in Murphy, NC in both the boys and girl’s races. In the boys’ standings, the Panthers finished with 32 points as they edged out Hayesville for first place as the Yellow Jackets finished with 43 points. Cherokee (96), Murphy (105), and Towns County (128) rounded out the top five. The girl’s standings looked very similar as Union County sat alone at the top with 37 points, Cherokee (51 points) edged out Hayesville (58 points) for second place, while Tri-County Early College finished fourth with 90 points.

Andrews O’Malley Salinas took first place for the boys finishing with a time of 16:45.20, holding an 11.9 second lead over Hiwassee Dam’s Ethan Russell who finished second with a time of 16:57.10. Cherokee County and Union County both featured two finishers in the top six. For Union, Benton Gregory finished third with a time of 18:25.20 and Wes Seiler finished sixth at 19:30.90. As for the Braves, Aizen Bell finished fourth and Ogana Swimmer finished fifth. Their times were 19:05.20 and 19:16.30, respectively.

In the girls’ race, Cherokee and Union County also featured two top six finishers. Dvdaya Swimmer out of Cherokee would finish first in the girl’s pool with a time of 19:59.30. Livia Crowe would be the other Braves runner to finish in the top five as she finished third at 21:56.90. For the Panthers, Lola Hunter finished second at 21:07.90 and Ellie Adams finished sixth at 23:31.30. Hayesville’s Sydney Greenstone placed fourth with a time of 22:17.80, while host Tri-County Early College’s Fern Crayton would round out the top five with a time of 22:34.71