The Mathews High School Cross Country teams showed their strength at the Region 1A East Championship last Thursday at Eastern State in Williamsburg. The boys defied the odds and took first place, narrowly beating out the very strong Altavista team (68) by a score of 65 points. The girls’ squad (55) fell by a mere two points to Rappahannock County (53), one of the top teams in the state.

The girls’ squad gave it their all, but it was not quite enough to edge out the very strong Rappahannock team. However, the day was not completely unsuccessful. Mathews had four girls place in the top 15 overall finishers to receive All-Region honors, as well as three girls run all-time personal records.

Kate van Emmerik led the girls’ team, placing ninth overall with a time of 21:53. Ellie Gale (22:20), Kelly Nelson (22:26) and Kaitlyn Thompson (22:29) also made All-Region, placing 10th, 12th and 13th, respectively. Emily Brown followed, placing 22nd with a time of 23:37. Kriste...