Dolphins Win Regionals; Go to States

They competed in the Costal 10 conference championship, Region 1 championship, and the state championship. To start off was the Costal 10 conference championship that was held in Manteo. The girls have not had a full team for the greater part of the year but volleyball players Katie O’Neal and Sydney Austin joined the team. With the help of these two runners, the Lady Dolphins easily took hold of the conference championship. The boys, having won every conference race of the season, approached the race with confidence. They easily won the conference championship. With these victories, both teams were on their way to regionals.

Regionals contained all of the teams in the region 1 section of North Carolina. This race was also raced at Manteo High School. The boys raced first, and it was probably the closest race of the season. The top 5 runners from each team count for the points. Lejeune High School and Ocracoke both had 68 points. The tie breaker was the 6th place runner for each team, and runner Kyle Tillett beat out the 6th place runner for Lejeune making Ocracoke the region 1 cross country champs! Besides the top 2 schools it really wasn’t much of a competition.

After this was the girls race, and the Lady Dolphins once again had 5 runners so they qualified as a team. The ladies had one of the best races of the season; everyone ran very well and for the second year in a row the Dolphins were regional champions!

Also, Kevin Perez placed first and Karen Perez placed third in their races.  Last year the men’s team were runners-up, but we did not let that happen this year as we captured the region. Both Dolphin teams won the region and it was a Dolphins' sweep! Both teams were on to states!

The State championship race contained all of the 1A teams that place in the top 4 in their regional races. The race was in Kernersville NC, and the weather conditions created a challenge during the race. It was about 40 degrees, with wind gusts of up to 25 mph, and the course was completely muddy, making it very slippery and difficult to have traction. None the less the Dolphins were determined to run as hard as they could.

Despite the times not being stellar, the Dolphins ended what was a great season where they had hoped, at the State Championships. The Dolphins placed 13th overall in the 1A men’s race. The girls also raced very well, and had their times altered due to the conditions. The Lady Dolphins also placed 13th in the 1A women’s race.

The Cross Country season has been great, but now we are on to basketball – the 1st game is November 18th at First Flight High School! Let’s get as many Dolphin fans to as many games as possible!

Fear the Pod!