PINETOWN — Over 100 runners from seven different schools took off from the starting line out front of Northside High School on Wednesday afternoon. Southside’s Ethan Sommers won the meet with a time of 17 minutes and 42 seconds, which was far beyond the rest of the field.

The track is a favorite for a lot of runners, although a hot, sunny day added some time to their finishes, a few runners said.

“I came out pretty fast, probably a little more than I should’ve,” Sommers said after the race. “I enjoy this course a lot. It’s an easy course to learn, just one big loop. It’s pretty quick for how much of it is in the woods and how much it turns.”

Sommers’ best time of the year so far was 16:43 that came this past weekend at McAlpine Creek Park in Charlotte.

Northside’s Caroline Boyd scored a seventh place finish among girls with a time of 24:19. Jasmine Carawan, Candance Nimmons, SaraBeth Boyd, Leah Cahoon and Laura Lyle all scored points for the Panthers.

Northside finished fourth among all teams for the girls and boys meets.

Thomas Boyd was the top finisher for Northside, coming in at 20:59 on the evening, while Brent Holland, Justin Bell, Bryson Proctor, Zane Brooks, Austin Adams and Landon Davenport all scored for the Panthers.

“Thomas was the top boy for our school but like I was telling you, Brent Holland was following him rapidly. He’s been improving, improving, improving,” Northside head coach Bob Girani said. “They’re about 10 seconds a part right now, I wouldn’t be surprised to see (Holland) pull off an upset.”

Southside’s Destiny Ward and Jasmine Street finished side-by-side on Wednesday afternoon.

“I thought our runners ran well today,” Southside coach Katherine Bogart said. “(Ward) has been dropping minutes off of her time every week.”

Southside is only in its fourth season with a cross-country team and are hoping to add more runners to their roster in the future.