By David Rogers. KERNERSVILLE, N.C. — With 9th and 10th place finishes, respectively, Grady Gates and Andres Roman helped the Watauga Middle School cross country team to a strong performance on Oct. 22, at the Ivey Redmon Sports Complex in the 2022 North Carolina Middle School State Meet.
Gates (11:35.97) and Roman (11:45.37) led a strong Watauga team that officially finished 8th out of 13 teams, but three of those finishing ahead were club teams rather than school teams and a fourth “team” was comprised of all the top unattached individual athletes. Although only the top five runners on a team contribute to the team score, Watauga only had a team of six competing instead of the seven allowed.
In all, 98 boys competed in the state meet, from 20 schools and clubs.
Also finishing in the top half of the field for Watauga was Brian Newmark (46th, 12:52.14)
