Northside’s Harding dominates, Panthers produce solid times at home meet

Published 2:28 am Thursday, October 10, 2024

By Jason O. Boyd

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YEATESVILLE, N.C. – Northside senior Andrew Harding didn’t run his fastest race on Wednesday but, then again, he didn’t have to do that.

Harding just missed a sub-16-minute time but still cruised to an easy overall victory during Wednesday’s conference meet on senior day at Northside. He finished the race in 16:10, a full minute over Lejeune’s Ralph Pfeil, who came in second overall at 17:24.

East Carteret’s Brooke Wilson won the girls’ race in 22:57 while Emrie Scott of Northside placed third in 23:50.

Harding has a weekend race he will run, Panthers coach Casey Schulte said, so he was kind of saving himself for that race. Northside also has the conference tournament at Pamlico County along with the Class 1-A East Regionals at Northside and the state championship coming up.

“So that was not actually his best time. He has another race on Saturday, so we knew he was going to push today,” Schulte said. “He has a winner’s mindset, so he always wants to go out and win.

“So he did exactly what I expected him to do. He’s an awesome athlete and he’s got this winner’s mindset. So I knew he would come out up top, but yeah, he’s wonderful.

Lejeune had nine of the top 12 runners to dominate the boys’ meet. Northside sophomore Avery Roberson (11th, 19:12) and freshman William Arce (19:31) also had good showings.

On the girls’ side, Lejeune had eight of the top 16 runners. Northside had five runners in the top 20 with senior Ava Hedgepeth (7th, 25:17), freshman Trinity Modlin (9th, 25:39), senior Emma Boyd (13th, 26:59), freshman Kinsey White (18th, 28:04) and junior Bailey Singleton (19th, 28:05) also producing good times.

Schulte said having the freshmen and sophomores produce the times they had bodes well for the program’s future once a superstar like Harding graduates.

“So that was really positive going into kind of this week, our last kind of regular meet of the season,” Schulte said. “I knew their times would be a little bit slower today because our course is a tough course. There’s a lot of hills in the back.

“I mean, I am tickled with our … we have a very young team, so I am very pleased with how they are doing and what the potential for the next couple of years looks like for our side cross country.”

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