Both Hillcrest’s varsity and junior varsity (JV) boys cross country teams gave an outstanding performance this past Saturday, October 15th, at the conference meet. Their impressive running resulted in a 3rd place finish from the JV team, coming in behind conference rivals Bremen High School and T.F. North.

Freshman phenom James Edgecombe finished the race with a personal best time of 18 flat, as well as leaving with a 3rd place medal. Freshman Michael Bell gave an excellent performance as well, running an 18:12, resulting in a 6th place medal. Both Edgecombe and Bell received All-Conference honors for their amazing running. However, both freshman weren’t the only ones with exceptional performances. Honorable running came from all the JV runners running their best times including Sophomore Kevin Snow, Sophomore Gabriel Are, Sophomore Sam Agoye, Freshman Jevohn Maxey, and Freshman Raymond Temple.

Despite having only three runners, the boys varsity team was still able to get the job done by running superb times. The team was lead by Senior Jesus Nieto, Junior Steven Addison, and Sophomore Darryl Thomas. After having a bumpy season, Nieto ran his personal best time of 17:10 earning him Athlete of the Week (Oct. 10-15). Both Addison and Thomas put up a fight resulting in them running their best times.

Both boys cross country teams were transformed into one Varsity team by choosing the top 7 runners, and competing at Regionals. With the momentum gained at conference the cross country team was able to attack Regionals resulting in them qualifying to the State’s Sectional Meet.  This is the 3rd time in Hillcrest history the boys cross country team was able to qualify as a team (last two times being in 2015 and 1999). The team was lead by Jesus Nieto, James Edgecombe, Steven Addison, Kevin Snow, Gabriel Are, Michael Bell, Darryl Thomas, and Jevohn Maxey.