Hannah Rae Shaffer Leads North Carolina Team To Dominant Victory

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor 

Freshman Hannah Rae Shaffer and her Raleigh Catholic teammates made good use of the extra time in their season after the North Carolina state meet and capped the 2021 fall season on a high note at the Nike Cross Southeast regional at WakeMed Soccer Complex in Cary, N.C. 

Shaffer won the regional title by 22 seconds and helped Raleigh Catholic (Cardinal Gibbons) to a low score of 35 points Saturday. 

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Shaffer's time of 17:44.9 was 13 seconds faster than her 12th-place finish at the Great American XC Festival in early October on the same course. 

Raleigh Catholic (Cardinal Gibbons) was the third-place team at the North Carolina Class 4A final. Derby City AC (Assumption KY) was second with 74 points and West Springfield XC of Virginia (93) and Marietta XC of Georgia (95) were third and fourth, respectively.

The Maryland boys champions from Severna Park XC extended their footprint on the season by capturing the boys regional title with 77 points. 

Tyler Canady (sixth overall), James Glebocki (12th) and Eddie Sullivan (13th) gave Severna Park a trio near the front and the group won the regional title for the first time since 2014. 

Junior Owen Shifflett from the Crozet Crew (Western Albemarle VA) won the race in 15:10.9. Shifflett had placed seventh in the Virginia Class 4 final on Nov. 13 but beat the state champion, Graham Mussmon of The Jungle TC (Loudoun Valley VA), by 1.7 seconds on Saturday. 

Mussmon finished second, followed by unattached runner Tucker Sangster from Maryland (15:16.1) and Joshua Ruiz (15:16.3), the top finisher for Rinker XC (Belen Jesuit FL). 

Warrior Project (Weddington NC) finished second with 117 points. Hebron (Conner KY) was third with 138 points.