A young, energetic group – Laurinburg Exchange

Scotland’s cross country team competes in a race last season. The Fighting Scots are young this year, but head coach Greg Wrape said he is impressed with the group’s upside.

LAURINBURG — If Saturday’s Tiger Challenge 3K Kickoff scrimmage provided any indication of how the season will go, Scotland High’s cross-country team has a bright future.

The Fighting Scots had 10 runners earn medals in their respective classes at the meet, which was hosted by South View. Head coach Greg Wrape likes what he is seeing from his team as its season-opening meet, South View’s Jungle Run, approaches on Aug. 31.

“We’ve got a young group, but we’ve got an energetic group,” Wrape said. “We’ve got a bunch of hard workers. There’s a lot of upside on this team.”

Scotland sent seven boys and five girls to regionals last season. Madison Williams, a current junior on the girls team, was Scotland’s state meet qualifier. She was also one of the team’s three All-Sandhills Athletic Conference selections. Joining her on that list were Aaron Aycock, Jackson Sellers and Tony Strickland from the boys team. Strickland traded in his running shoes for football cleats this year, but Aycock and Sellers are back in action.

“Everybody on our boys team is a returner from last year,” Wrape said. “We’ve got two all-conference returning boys, and I expect that number to go up. I expect to have three to four all-conference boys. We had one all-conference girl last year. I expect to have more than one all-conference girl.”

Pinecrest, one of the state’s perennial powers in distance running, won the boys and girls titles at the conference championship meet last year. The Patriots return several of their top runners this year. Scotland’s boys finished third, and the Lady Scots finished fifth in the league.

Wrape said Pinecrest’s talent level is the bar the Fighting Scots want to reach. Wrape expects his young team to “close the gap” on the Patriots.

“I personally think we still have a chance to compete because, in a cross-country race, you never know what could happen,” Wrape said. “You just don’t know.

“(The boys) finished third last year in the conference. My goal is to best that … finish second, finish first. If all the chips were to fall the right way, I think all of that is possible on the boys side. On the girls side, our job is to finish — as a team — better than we did last year, and I think that’s completely possible.”

Scotland’s strong showing at its scrimmage race on Saturday included a second-place finish by Williams in the Junior/Senior Girls 3K. She finished in a time of 12:28.30. In the boys Junior/Senior 3K, Sellers paced the Scots with an 11th-place finish. Aycock, Cooper Sutherland and Keldon Clark all logged top-10 finishes in the Freshmen/Sophomore/Middle Boys 3K. Aycock registered a second-pace finish with a time of 10:07.10. In the Freshman/Sophomore/Middle Girls 3K, three Lady Scots — Tabitha Williams, Qiara Worth and Mikayla Tucker — finished in the top 10.

All of those runners, as well as Cooper Sutherland and Laura Wlodarcazak, received medals for impressive finishes in their classes.

The Scots want to build on that success, and Wrape said they took a good first step by showing maturity during the offseason.

“It’s just the idea of what they expect during the summertime, as far as getting miles in, and what to expect when workouts come.” Wrape said. “They’re not as intimidated by the workouts. Most of them know what to expect.”

The Fighting Scots will hold a fundraiser, the annual “90-Minute Challenge,” on Saturday at 8 a.m. at the Morgan Complex. Each of the team’s runners will log as many miles as they can in a 90-minute period. Sponsors of the event will agree to donate a specific amount of money per each mile recorded. For information about the fundraiser, email Wrape at [email protected]

Scotland’s cross country team competes in a race last season. The Fighting Scots are young this year, but head coach Greg Wrape said he is impressed with the group’s upside.

Brandon Tester can be reached at [email protected] or 910-506-3170. Follow him on Twitter @BrandonTester.