Newberry College’s cross country teams turned in a strong showing at the Wilmington Beach Blast over the weekend, with the men’s squad finishing second and the women’s team taking third among four collegiate teams at the event.
The Wolves traveled to the Wilmington Municipal Golf Course in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Saturday, September 12, for the annual meet hosted by UNC Wilmington. The free, community-facing event drew collegiate squads from UNC Wilmington and Methodist University alongside Newberry, in addition to a full slate of youth, middle school and high school races throughout the morning.
On the men’s side, Camden Longdon led Newberry with a 10th-place overall finish in 17 minutes, 46.21 seconds. Ethan Linder followed close behind in 11th at 18:08.13, while Nehemiah Smith placed 18th in 20:52.66. Gabriel Dos Santos rounded out Newberry’s scoring runners as the team secured second place out of the four men’s squads competing in the 5K.
The women’s team ran closely as a pack for much of the race, according to team results. Alexis Fonseca paced the Wolves with an eighth-place finish in 20:45.77, followed by Addison Evans in ninth at 22:24.77 and Morgan Conklin in 11th at 24:17.66. Kayla Favela also factored into the team scoring as Newberry claimed third place among the four women’s teams entered.
UNC Wilmington head coach Jeff Klaves, whose program hosted the event, said it was an honor to bring the meet to the Wilmington Municipal Golf Course and thanked the city and course for the opportunity to showcase the sport locally. The event featured races for elementary, middle school, high school and collegiate runners across the morning, with free entry for spectators.
Newberry’s cross country programs will look to build on the result when they return to competition on Friday, October 2, at UNC Greensboro in Greensboro, North Carolina, as the Wolves continue building toward their conference championship meet later this fall.
