Fort Mill’s Dawson races to Region title

Fort Mill High freshman Abby Dawson raced her way to a Region IV-5A cross country title at the Region IV meet in Clover.

Dawson paced the field, winning in 19:36, as the Lady Jackets team took second place overall in the region meet. Rock Hill won the team event with 32 points with Fort Mill was second with 46 points. The Nation Ford girls finished third with 68 points. The Falcons were led by Katie Pou, who finished fourth overall in 20:12.

Other top finishers for Fort Mill were Sydney George, who was eighth in 21:11; Olivia Rosener in 10th in 21:29; Meagan Allen in 13th in 21:48 and Mia Davis in 14th in 21:57.

For the Falcons, besides Pou, other top finishers were Anna Hardymon in seventh in 21:00; Addy Rogers in 11th in 21:30; Sam McNeil in 22nd in 23:16 and Abby Audette in 24th in 23:33.

In the boy’s race, Fort Mill finished third overall with 68 points and Nation Ford was fourth with 84 points. Leading the way for Fort Mill was Nicholas Kilbarger in sixth place in 17:12. Following him for the Jackets was Harrison McLeland in 13th in 18:02 and Ethan Smith in 14th in 18:07. Michael Marcsik finished 17th in 18:23 and Dane Dobleske was 18th in 18:24 to round out the scoring for Fort Mill.

For the Falcons, Anthony Frattaroli was 10th overall in 17:49, followed by Thomas Windell in 11th in 17:56 and Ryan Woods in 18:01 in 12th. Connor O’Flynn was 25th in 18:47 and Malcolm McClain was 26th in 18:49 for Nation Ford.

Up next for both Nation Ford and Fort Mill will be the state qualifier race at Sandhills Research Center in Columbia Oct. 29 and then if they qualify, the 5A state finals, also in Sandhills Nov. 5.

This story was originally published October 20, 2016 at 6:36 PM with the headline "Fort Mill’s Dawson races to Region title."