On August 29, 2026, the Leesville Road High School Men’s Cross Country team competed in the Knight’s Invitational in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
The team did just enough to achieve a top three finish. Only seven points and a team average of five seconds separated them from a hard charging Northern Nash High School.
The five kilometer long course was not easy to tackle. Lucas Barton, sophomore, said, “The course was pretty hard and hilly, killed the momentum a lot and really brought the pace down.”
Leesville is well positioned to tackle these hills. Caleb Mclendon, junior, said, “Pretty much everything around Leesville is hills, so that helps with courses like WakeMed with big hills.” The WakeMed course is famous for its main hill that athletes must run up twice during races.
Performance on the WakeMed course will dictate the team’s success. Most major meets the teams participate in will be run at this course, including the conference championship and regionals, with the latter deciding if the team can make it to states.
The team’s shot at states will be a major challenge this season, after losing longtime head coach Eric Gamble and the previous year’s four fastest runners.
The uncertainty the team faces, however, is drowned out by the team’s excitement of the upcoming Friday Night Lights meet on September 11. “The lights, the music, the food, it doesn’t even feel like a meet, it feels like a festival,” Barton said.
In addition to the unique atmosphere, the event is run on the same course that the Cross Country State Championship will be held on in November, which makes the event an important test run for teams expecting to be competing at states.
Leave a Reply