Lexington County boys cross country teams have been off to a great start so far this season. Many teams are ranked in the top ten in the state in their respective classifications and are in contention to win their regions.

With region and state meets coming up, the Chronicle highlights a few of the teams going into the pivotal stretch.

Lexington

The Lexington boys team has been led by William Cronin, Jesse Oates, Connor Forche and Grayson Bradberry. According to coach Sam Oxley, Cronin and Oates consistently run in between the high 15 and low 16-minute marks for their 5Ks and Forche and Bradberry are consistently in the high 16s. 

As a group, Lexington is ranked second in the state in the 5A classification after big wins at multiple events. So far, the Wildcats have won the Skyhawk Invitational, Pelican’s Invitational, Wildcat Classic, Warrior XC Invitational and Lakelands Invitational.

They also posted a strong fifth place showing in the Wendy’s Invitational in Charlotte, one of the more prestigious cross country events in the Carolinas. The Wildcats are now gearing up for the Lexington County Championship on Oct. 18 followed by the Region IV-5A championship on Oct. 25. 

Batesburg-Leesville

The Batesburg-Leesville boys cross country team has cracked the top ten in the state in the 2A classification. Before the season, head coach Justin Castro set goals for his team to beat last year’s state finish of 12th and to finish better than third in the region, which is where they finished last season behind Fox Creek and Pelion.

According to Castro, the team has a consistent top seven who have all had great seasons starting with Brayan Villaseca-Torres, Cade Long, Gavin Penny, Eric Gambrell, Sawyer Ringer, Liam Truitt and Raul DeLuna.

Castro and his team are on track to surpass their goals set for this season as they head into their biggest meets of the season with the Lexington County Championship, Region Championship and state qualifiers.

Pelion

The Pelion boys have also been successful this season as they have won three of their six events so far this season, with those wins coming in Camden, Calhoun Academy and Batesburg.

Senior Michael Watts has collected two individual wins this season and has led the way for this Panthers team. Sophomore Kolton Gleaton has competed well with Watts for the number one spot according to head coach Mark Bedenbaugh. 

The early success has the Panthers ranked seventh in the state in 2A and have a big meet in Newberry coming up with over 70 teams registered to compete. 

Gray Collegiate

According to head coach Kevin Heise, this has been a rebuilding year for the War Eagles boys team. They lost five of their top six runners from last year and have needed newcomers to step up.

Junior Joey Sullivan was named team captain this year. He’s been joined by other top runners such as Carlos Vasquez, Owen Strikeleather and Huck Crowder.

Heise has also praised the performances of freshman Jess Stone, Mason Spears, Jacob Gardner, Miles Guida and Ionnais Topakas.

Gilbert

The Gilbert boys team is led by Matthew Shealy, Wilson Oxner, Ethan Holmes, Reece Beebe and Noah Ellison. 

Shealy’s third place finish in Pelion helped the team finish sixth overall in the competition. In the Chop Town Classic in Gilbert, the Indians won the overall competition as Shealy, Oxnard and Holmes all finished in the top five to help them take home the title.

American Leadership Academy

Given how new the school is, ALA got off to a late start to the season, but coach Julia Norcia is pleased with the initial turnout and the early progress that is being made to build the program.

ALA finished in second place in the junior varsity race at the Choptown Classic in Gilbert. With this being their first season as a program, Norcia and her team will be placed in an SCHSL classification next year and hope to continue the program’s growth.

Irmo

Head coach Jeannette Farr has been proud of the progress the team has made from varsity camp up to the Mike Moore Classic.

According to Farr, Rickson Figueroa leads the team but is closely followed by Hayden Applegate, who is also having a great season. As a team, Irmo is still pushing to accomplish their end-of-season goals.

“We all have one goal in mind. Give it everything we got and persevere through pain because that is a fundamental life skill. We have a few meets left this season to shatter our goals and the coaches are so proud of each of our runners and the progress they have made and will make,” Farr said.

Northside Christian

The Northside Christian boys cross country team is currently led by junior All-Region runner Cade McNeill, whose 17:52 time is the team-high.

The Crusaders have also gotten contributions from junior Trace Poston and freshman Noah Greene, Case Ray and Jackson Crowson. Eighth grader Lucas Alveraz and sixth grader Jace Cummins have provided key production as middle schoolers.

According to coach Stephen McNeill, the goal of the team is to finish strong at the region meet Oct. 17 and at the state meet Oct. 28.