Nation Ford’s Pou, Fort Mill win Region IV titles

Nation Ford’s Katie Pou and the Fort Mill girls’ cross-country team ran away with Region IV cross-country championships.

A freshman, Pou won the individual title in 18:05, ahead of second place finisher Fort Mill’s Sydney George by a minute and 13 seconds. However, George’s performance was a catalyst to propel the Jackets to the team title as they scored 42 points in getting the win last week.

Following George’s time of 19:18 was Abby Dawson, who came in fourth at 19:58 with Mary Drolet in 11th at 21:01 and Mia Zimmerman right behind her in 12th in 21:12. Genesis Simpson rounded out the scoring for Fort Mill after finishing 13th in 21:14.

Nation Ford girls were second with 51 points with three finishers in the top 10. Following Pou’s performance for the Falcons was Elaine Griffith coming in seventh at 20:41 and Claire Mattes coming in eighth at 20:45. Hunter Mates finished 17th in 21:40 and Cate Tedford was 18th in 21:42 for the Falcons.

In the boys’ race, Northwestern took the team title with 45 points while Fort Mill finished second with 58 and Nation Ford was fourth with 88.

For Fort Mill, Ethan Smith led the way, finishing fifth in 16:50 as the Jackets had three runners finish in the top 10. Coming in ninth was Aiden McNeill in 17:01 and 10th was Dalton Jones in 17:05. Rounding out the scoring for the Jackets were Dane Dobleske finishing 16th in 17:20 and Jacob Dawson finishing 18th in 17:23.

Nation Ford was led to the finish line by Thomas Windell, who finished eighth in 17:00. He was followed by Anthony Frattaroli, who was 12th in 17:08, and Connor O’Flynn, who finished 17th in 17:22. Gage Arbon finished 25th in 18:26 and Jakob Hill was 26th in 18:31 for Nation Ford to post their final two scores.

Both schools will now turn their attention to the 5A Mid-State qualifier Oct. 28 at the Sandhill Research Center in Columbia.

This story was originally published October 24, 2017 at 10:06 AM with the headline "Nation Ford’s Pou, Fort Mill win Region IV titles."