Meeks wins as White County teams take second

White County cross country came home from Cookeville Thursday night with a pair of runner-up team finishes, an individual race winner, and several personal records spread across the middle school and high school races.

The biggest cluster of White County runners near the front came in the middle school boys race, where four Warriors crossed the line among the top 10.

And nobody crossed it before Tyler Meeks.

The eighth grader won the two-mile race in 14:18.50, giving White County the individual champion. Wes Holman added a fifth-place finish at 15:37.90, while Jaxon Mathews was seventh at 16:00.90 and Everett Lee grabbed the final top-10 spot at 17:33.50.

Justin Walden wasn't far behind, finishing 11th in 17:51.80. With five scoring runners inside the top 11, White County totaled 34 points to finish second as a team. Cole Williams also competed for the Warriors, placing 20th.

The high school girls matched that second-place team finish with 39 points.

Senior Natalie Wilson led the Warriorettes and broke the 30-minute mark with a personal-record 29:19.20, good for ninth overall. White County then packed five more scoring runners between 16th and 24th to secure the runner-up finish.

Olivia Revange was 16th, Jubilee Kugler 19th, Charlotte Lee 22nd, and Elizabeth Gilbert 24th. Treeah Powell and Lillie Willis completed the White County lineup in 26th and 27th.

The high school boys didn't land on the team podium, but they had a pair of freshmen turn in PR performances near the front of the field.

Kolt Pryor continued his strong start to the season by taking eighth overall in 21:11.50, a new personal best. Isaac Williams wasn't far behind, also setting a PR with his 15th-place time of 22:36.10.

The Warriors then had Michael Smith and Luke Benson finish virtually together. Smith crossed in 24:09.00, with Benson just one-tenth of a second behind him at 24:09.10. Hunter Rigsby and Aaron Mast completed the lineup as White County scored 79 points to finish fourth.

White County had just one runner entered in the middle school girls race. Kyla Barnett represented the Warriorettes with a 15th-place finish, completing the two-mile course in 24:21.50.

The Cookeville meet gave White County another chance to measure its progress as the season moves along, with three high school runners setting new personal bests and the middle school boys continuing to make their presence known near the front of the field.