Before school started in August, Naomi Dyreng laid out her objective for her senior year.
She had already won a conference championship in women’s cross country, plus several regional championships in track and field. Her goal for 2024 was to spread toe joy of running to her team in hopes of greater success as a whole.
“I want to make Cedar Ridge a place where people can really learn how to love running,” Dyreng said back in August. “I want to be able to communicate what I’ve learned from my success to the new people we have coming up. I’m focus on that more than winning this race of that race.”
By that measure, Dyreng has already accomplished her mission.
On Wednesday, Cedar Ridge won the women’s cross country team championship at Lake Cammack Course in Burlington. Dyreng repeated as the Central Conference individual champion, finishing first with a time of 20:15.40. Orange’s Reilly Jermyn, a freshman, came in second at 20:38.60.
Dyreng’s first place finish was enough to give Cedar Ridge 31 points. Orange, with its best showing since the Central Conference was formed in 2021, finished second with 50 points.
Dyreng has spent the past week adding on to her legacy at Cedar Ridge. Last Saturday, Dyreng set the school record at the North Carolina Runners Elite Cross Country Invitational at the Ivey Redmon Sports Complex in Kernersville, which also hosts the state championship each November. Dyreng finished at 18:58.57, eighth overall against some of the top runners in the state.
In addition to two conference championships in cross country, Dyreng has also won three conference championships in outdoor track & field (two in the 3,200 meters, one in the 1,600 meters in 2023). She has captured three regional championships in outdoor track and field, winning the 1,600 and 3,200 meters in 2023 at Franklinton High School. Last year, she won the 3,200 meters at UNC Pembroke, along with a runner-up finish in the 1,600. She has qualified for the state championships three times, finished 7th in the 1,600 meters as a sophomore in 2023. Later that day at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, she came in 8th in the 3,200 meters.
While Orange had three of the top five finishers, Cedar Ridge placed runners 6-through-9 to take the conference title. All four were underclassmen. Sophomore Gracie Whitaker came in sixth (23:01.63) while freshman Ila Diaz earned 7th pace (23:16.78). Elaina Sobus, a freshman, crossed the finish line 8th (23:23.34). Kate Finnegan, a sophomore who plays basketball in the winter and soccer in the spring, came in 9th (23:29.96).
Cedar Ridge senior Anna Peterson finished 11th at 24:08.36.
Jermyn, the younger sister of Orange’s Myles Jermyn, led the best individual finish by a female Orange runner in five years. Of the top five finishers, three were Orange freshman. Finishing behind Jermyn were Ava Bishop, who came in fourth at 21:36.32. Another Panther 9th grader, Kinsey Ross, came in fifth at 22:06.07.
Ava Childress of Walter Williams was the only non-Hillsborough runner in the top five, crossing the finish line in third place at 21:30.85.
Orange senior Caroline Cathey finished 15th (24:40.49). Cedar Ridge senior Serena Summers earned a 23rd place finish (26:56.12). Another Orange underclassman, sophomore Mia Blake, came in 25th at 27:06.67.
Orange and Cedar Ridge each qualified as a team for the Mideast Regionals, which will be held in Louisburg on October 26.
Walter Williams, the defending conference champions, came in third with 65 points. Western Alamance was fourth at 96 points while Southern Alamance was fifth. Person had several individual runners compete, as well.
With the title, Cedar Ridge already has more Central Conference championships this academic year than all of 2023-24. The volleyball team shared the conference title with Orange last week.
Last year, Cedar Ridge’s wrestling team won the school’s only conference regular season title. (The volleyball team won the conference tournament championship)