Submitted by Northside High School cross-country staff

 

BAYBORO — The Coastal Plains Conference conducted the second of five conference meets on Wednesday at the Pamlico County cross-country course, where a handful of Northside runners notched personal best times and even a course record.

Holden Newman set a blistering pace from start to finish, taking first place with a time of 16 minutes and 45 seconds. The constituted a new course record for the Pamlico County course. The pace inspired his brother Austen and teammate Braedon Cooper to follow suit and record their own personal best times of 18:06 and 18:21, respectively.

Running closely behind and in tandem were Brock Marsh and Elijah Norton, recording their personal best times of 19:39 and 19:47, respectively. This enabled first five Northside boys all to finish in the 19-minute range, coming out of nowhere in a superb team effort.

Rounding out the boys’ field and contributing to Northside’s second-place-conference finish were Nathaniel Bowen, Henry Nimons and Hunter Taylor, all rapidly closing the gap.

The girls’ team is starting to come together and believe in themselves. Five girls — Ashley Cullom, Gabby Slade, Shana Taylor, Allison Waters and Caitlin Johnson — all ran under 30 minutes. Gwen Lincoln and Samathan Warren are showing remarkable progress, enough to expand the top-five runners to seven by the next meet. Lauren Brinson and Kimberly Burris also produced individual personal records.

Northside will travel to Bear Grass on Wednesday for the third Coastal Plains Conference meet of the cross-country season.