BY ANDREW FAISON/CONTRIBUTING WRITER
andrew.faison@yahoo.com

COURTLAND—Southampton High School senior Tabbitha Bruck’s second-place finish in Thursday’s cross country meet helped the Lady Indians win the event.

Southampton had 26 points and was followed by Park View with 30. Greensville also participated.

“We’ve had a good year,” said Southampton Coach Scott Edwards.

“If everything goes like every other meet, we’ll have seven girls go to regionals.”

Bruck finished with a time of 23:40. Other top runners for the Lady Indians were freshman Jessica Fox, third overall in 25:44; junior Holley Moore, fifth in 26:00; freshman Mary Hudgins, seventh in 27:19; freshman Sarah Giorgi, ninth in 29:43; senior Megan Owens, 10th in 30:04; and junior Amber Gurganus, 16th in 31:45.

As for the boys’ meet, Greensville won with 27 points. Southampton had 43, Prince Edward 69 and Park View 104.

“We’ve fought back and forth all season with Greensville,” said Edwards. “Today sealed it for us and the boys will finish second in the district. Everything depends on next week to see how many we will take to regionals.”

The top Indian finishers were sophomore Forrest South, third in 19:36; junior Kevin Watford, fifth in 20:10; freshman Cole Jarratt, ninth in 20:54; sophomore Enoch Westover, 10th in 21:39; and sophomore Cameron McHenry, 16th in 22:20.

Southampton’s top runners, senior Daniel Lowdermilk, was nursing a knee injury and did not compete.

“We need to get everyone healthy,” Edwards said. “We are nursing a lot of injuries, and it showed today. I just hope we can get healthy for next week.”

Southampton at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24, will run in the District Championship Meet on the Greensville course. The top 15 runners who do not belong to the district championship team will advance to the regional meet.

“A good showing next week, and winning the meet next week, we could still end up having a team at regionals,” said Edwards.

Before the boys’ race, a moment of silence was held for Park View runner Elias Jones, who was killed in a motorcycle crash Saturday. Runners wore purple and white ribbons in his memory, which are Prince Edward’s school colors.