Both Nation Ford and Fort Mill runners performed well in two separate cross-country races in North Carolina on Saturday.

Nation Ford girls won the girl’s invitational race which consisted of 49 teams at the Hare & Hounds Invitational at McAlpine Creek in Charlotte, N.C. with 161 points, while the boy’s finished 14th at the adidas XC Challenge in Cary, N.C.

In the girl’s race in Charlotte, Nation Ford had three top 25 runners with Haley Garcia finishing fifth to lead the Falcons in 19:55. Jordyn Battle was 18th in 20:51 and Taylor Battle was 21st in 21:02. Elise Posko finished 38th for the Falcons at 21:31 and Madison Frazier rounded out the scoring with a 104th place finish in 23:07. There were 349 runners in the girl’s invitational race.

In the boy’s invitational race at the adidas XC Challenge, Nation Ford finished 14th with 443 points. Myers Park won the race with 150 points. There were 37 teams in the race and 327 runners.

Leading the way for the Falcons was Mason Haynes with a 23rd place finish at 16:38. Aiden Moysaenko was 77th in 17:28 and Townsend Smith finished 106th in 17:59 for Nation Ford. Hudson Teubner was 125th in 18:14 and Robert Saddler was 127th in 18:16 to round out the scoring for the Falcons.

Fort Mill was also at the adidas XC Challenge and both the boys and girls team finished fourth as teams in the championship races. The Fort Mill boys had 286 points with Knoxville Catholic High School winning the race with 96 points. There were 34 teams in the boy’s championship race consisting of 305 runners.

Leading the way for the Jackets boys was Connor Demmerle with a 36th place finish in 15:55. Isaac Campbell was 45th in 16:01 and Hudson Haley was 64th in 16:13 for Fort Mill. Owen Ware finished in 96th in 16:35 and rounding out the scoring for Fort Mill was Zack Larner in 100th in 16:37.

In the girl’s championship race, Fort Mill took fourth out of 33 teams with 236 points. Bolles High School out of Jacksonville, Fla. won the race with 202 points. There were 279 runners in the race.

Leading the way for Fort Mill was Alivia Cleveland with an 18th place finish in 18:43. Kaylee Rovenstine was 29th in 18:55 and Mia Zook was 63rd in 19:41 for the Jackets. Ella Demmerle was 67th in 19:44 and Avery Moriarty finished the scoring for Fort Mill with a 90th place finish in 19:58.

Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep