Orange Track and Field

The cross country course at Northwood High School is one of the premier sites in the state. It has hosted conference and regional championships.

Only two months after nearly winning a state championship in track & field, Orange’s Spencer Hampton continued a stellar start to the fall season in Pittsboro.

On Monday, Hampton finished first in a Central Carolina Conference meet that also included Cedar Ridge, Northwood, Eastern Alamance and Western Alamance. Hampton had the top time of the day at 17:37.03, pacing a pack of 64 runners.

Hampton’s finished led Orange to come in 2nd in the team standings with 47 points. Northwood, which had four of the top seven runners, finished first with 23 points.

Orange’s Abezu Delvecchia was the only other Panther in the top 10, coming in 9th at 19:00.62.

Cedar Ridge came in fourth in the team standings with 98 points. Junior Roman Morrell came in fourth overall for the Red Wolves with a time of 18:00.90.

On September 10, Hampton finished 2nd in the Friday Night Lights Festival at the Ivey Redmon Sports Complex in Kernersville among 238 runners in the men’s invitational race. In June, Hampton led most of the race in the 3,200 meters at the 3A State Track & Field Championships at North Carolina A&T University. He finished 2nd behind Williams

In the Friday Night Lights Festival, Orange’s Gabriel Schmid finished 11th, crossing the finishing line at 16:43.60.

In the Northwood meet, Cyrus Neal came in 11th, while Schmid finished 21. Freshman Aiden Viola, sophomore lien Cathey, seniors Gabriel Jamison and Ethan Horton, Josiah McCoy and Jospeh Bernardo all finished in the top 50 for Orange.

For Cedar Ridge, Grayson Weisenfeld, sophomore Ethan Benner, Ryan Rakouskas, freshman Ryan Capps, junior John Stephenson, freshman Shea Spiller, and senior Mason Meyer all had top-50 finishes.

In the women’s race at Northwood, the top finisher from a local school was Orange junior Sophia Schultz, who crossed the finish line at 24:38.01.

The Cedar Ridge women’s team finished third among six teams. The Red Wolves had four runners finish in the top 20, including junior Sarah Fenwick, who came in 15th. Senior Sarah Tucker, who has competed in cross country and track & field at Cedar Ridge since she was a freshman, came in 17th.

Cedar Ridge’s Caroline Fowlkes, who qualified for the 3A State Track & Field Championships in the pole vault as a freshman, finished 21st.

Freshman Celine Galla came in 22nd, while Serena Summers and Georgia Roney finished 25th and 27th, respectively.

The Orange women’s team came in 5th in the overall standings. Abby Hengsterman, Harper Trost, Maggie Saunders, Avery Hengsterman, and Margaret Hales all had top 40 finishes for the Panthers. Junior Kate Barger also crossed the finish line for Orange.

In the Friday Night Lights Festival, freshman Caroline Cathey was the top Orange finisher on the women’s team with a time of 23:11.00. She finished 123rd out of 210 runners. Kassi Scarantino, Schultz, Saunders, and Hales also ran for Orange in Kernersville.

Cathey’s time in Kernersville was the top time by a female Orange runner so far in the young season.

Men’s Soccer: Cedar Ridge 2, Eastern Alamance 0

Days after scoring two goals against Orange in the Hillsborough Derby, Cedar Ridge’s Chris Mendez added to his team-lead in goals.

On Monday night, Mendez scored the game-winning goal as Cedar Ridge defeated Eastern Alamance 2-0 at Fred Brady Stadium in Mebane. Senior Jorge Salazar added insurance for the Red Wolves, who improved to 3-7 overall, 2-1 in the Central Carolina Conference. It was the second straight conference win for the Red Wolves.

Mendez now has seven goals on the season. Salazar is second on the team with seven points.

Goalkeeper Benjamin Weaver earned his second clean sheet of the season. It was his second straight win in net.

The Red Wolves were supposed to face Western Alamance on Wednesday night at Red Wolves Stadium, but the game was rained out. Cedar Ridge will host Person on Thursday night in Hillsborough.

Orange 4, Person 1

Orange co-Captain Jasper Tell scored the game-winning goal as the Panthers earned its first win in the Central Carolina Conference over Person on Monday night at Orange Soccer Park.

Junior Dylan Silverman assisted on the opening goal, then added Orange’s second goal later in the first half. In the second half, junior Cooper Zinn notched his third goal of the season. In the final ten minutes, junior Jack Pendergast added the first goal of his varsity career.

Orange’s trip to Northwood on Wednesday night was rained out. The Panthers will travel to Southern Durham on Friday.

Women’s tennis: Williams 5, Cedar Ridge 1:

Last Wednesday, the Red Wolves had just enough time to squeeze in six singles matches against Williams. Three of them went to 10-point tiebreakers in the third set, all of them claimed by Williams.

Red Wolves senior Chloe Patz won the Red Wolves only match at #2 singles over Haven Amick of Williams 7-6, 6-4. Cedar Ridge is 3-3 overall, 2-3 in the CCC. Their match scheduled for Wednesday against Person was rained out. The Red Wolves host Durham School of the Arts on Thursday.

Cross Country:

Two months after finishing 2nd in the state in the 3,200 meters, Orange senior Spencer Hampton made a major impression by finishing 2nd in the Friday Night Lights Festival, one of the biggest cross country events of the regular season at Ivey Redmon Sports Complex at Mount Tabor on September 10.

Hampton finished 2nd out of 238 runners with a time of 16:07.30. The only runner in the entire field to finish ahead of Hampton was North Lincoln’s Stephen Fernetti, who came in six seconds ahead of Hampton.

The strong showing by Hampton helped Orange finish fifth among 30 teams. In addition to Hampton, Orange’s Gabriel Schmid finished 10th. Sophomore Alden Cathey came in 23rd. Senior Ethan Horton came in 83rd and junior James Wheelis came in 93rd.

Providence captured the men’s team competition.

In the women’s race, Orange freshman Carolina Cathey was the top finisher, coming in 123rd. Kassi Scarantino, Sophia Schultz, Maggie Saunders and Margaret Hales also competed for Orange.

Women’s golf:

The latest Central Carolina Conference women’s golf meet was held at the Valley in Burlington on Monday. Orange senior Sarah Durham, this week’s Orange Panther of the Week, finished fifth overall out of 23 competitors with a 51. It was her third top five finish in three matches this year.

Sarah’s younger sister, Samantha, finished only one stroke behind her sister with a 52. Shannon Dorsi, Kayla Pope and Lucia Godinez also competed for Orange.

Cedar Ridge’s Olivia Aitkin tied for 9th with a 59.

Northwood won the team meet with a 151, two strokes better than Eastern Alamance’s 153. Orange came in fourth out of five teams with 168 strokes.

Our Retro Orange Panther of the Week takes us back to February 7. Freshman Katie Belle Sikes had a memorable year at Orange in more ways than one. She won two regional championships in swimming. At the Greensboro Aquatic Center, Belle won the regional titles in the 50 yard freestyle and the 100 yard freestyle. A week later at the 3A State Championships in Raleigh, Belle finished 2nd in the 50 yard freestyle. She came in 3rd in the 100 yard freestyle. Belle also finished 5th in the regional championships in the 200 yard medley relay with Riley White, Brooke Walker and Melissa Campbell. After the winter ended, Belle continued to practice with her club team at the Orange County Sportsplex. Like many other swimmers across the country, Belle spent the past two weeks watching the Summer Olympics in Tokyo closely, and dreaming of reaching that level someday. For now, Belle is preparing for her sophomore year at Orange and preparing for next November when the next swim season begins. This year, Belle will compete in a more traditional setting instead of the pandemic conditions of 2021, where she largely raced against the clock.

Our Retro Orange Panther of the Week is swimmer Owen Rasinske. Last winter, Rasinske qualified for the 3A State Championships in four different events. He teamed with classmate Matthew Geib, junior Ian Moore and sophomore Evan Phillips to finish 10th in the state in the 400 yard freestyle relay in 3:27.40. Like nearly everything else, the state swimming championships were impacted by the pandemic this year. Instead of the intensity of competing against eight other swimmers in opposing lanes, Rasinske and his teammates competed against the clock in timed finals. He joined Moore, Phillips and Geib to finish 10th in the 200 yard medley relay at 1:42.56. That group finished 5th in the Central Regional Championships. Individually, Rasinske finished 10th in the state in the 50 yard freestyle at 22.31 seconds. He also finished 10th in the state in the 100 yard freestyle with a time of 49.03 seconds. In the Central Regional Championships, Rasinske finished 2nd in the 50 yard freestyle and 3rd in the 100 yard freestyle. Rasinske graduated from Orange in June and is set to take a gap year. For now, he continues to train with his club team at the Orange County Sportsplex.

Our final Orange Panther of the Week for the 2020-2021 academic year is senior track and field athlete Erin Mink. On June 26, Mink finished 7th at the 3A State Track and Field Championships at North Carolina A&T’s Truist Stadium in Greensboro. Mink cleared ten feet. The previous week, Mink came in second at the Mideast Regionals at Southern Lee High School in Sanford. Mink didn’t just excel in the pole vault. At the Big 8 Conference Championships, Mink finished second in the triple jump and fourth in the long jump. This season, Mink Mink finished first in the triple jump at Friday Night Lights at East Chapel Hill High School on June 4. Mink had eight first place finishes for Orange this season in three different events. Her final meet at Orange took place two weeks after she graduated. Later this month, Mink will move in to her new surroundings at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she plans to study biology.

GREENSBORO–As Spencer Hampton prepared to run the biggest race of his life, there was a rainbow overhead.

The threatening clouds that had permeated the afternoon at Truist Stadium inside North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro had yielded to a rare but glorious sight. If someone believed in omens, they may have thought that Orange was about to have its first long-distance running state champion since 1998.

For eight minutes and 3,100 meters, Hampton reinforced that belief.

But it was the 3,200 meters that Hampton was running in. Walter Williams Ryan Motondo passed Hampton about 90 meters from the finish line to overtake the lead and beat Hampton to win the 3A State Championship on Saturday afternoon.

Motondo finished the race at 9:22.50. Hampton earned the second spot on the medal stand at Belk Track at 9:26.07. It is the best finish by any Orange runner, regardless of gender, since Bradsher Wilkins won the 4A Men’s 3,200 meter championship in 1998.

“I kind of knew what was going to happen,” Hampton said. “He (Motondo) has a really phenomenal kick. He’s a really phenomenal runner. I knew from the start I was going to have to take it out from the front if I was going to have to have a chance because a lot of these kids have a lot more of a kick that I do. We came down the stretch and I hoped that he didn’t have in him, but he did. I’m still super happy with how I did.”

At the outset, Hampton established the lead and turned back challenger after challenger through eight laps. Jack Dingman, a senior from Northern Guilford who won the 1,600 meter state championship earlier in the day, stayed just behind Hampton on the opening laps, but faded to the back. Chapel Hill’s Emil Arangala was a few strides back on the third and four laps, but couldn’t continue that pace. Weddington sophomore Caden Townshend also posed a threat before he was passed by Motondo.

Hampton and Motondo are no strangers to one another, and they’ll only get better acquainted as time goes on. Motondo was the 3A State Champion in men’s cross country in January, a race where Spencer finished 24th. In August, Orange and Williams will become league rivals in the brand new Central Conference.

Hampton won the 3A Mideast Regional Championship in the 1,600 meters at Southern Lee High School in Sanford on January 19. He opted not to run in the 1,600 meters state championship race on Saturday in order to focus on the 3,200 meters.

Orange was well-represented throughout the 3A State Track and Field Championships on a warm, but not oppressively hot, Saturday afternoon in Greensboro. Orange’s 4×400 relay team of Devin Goss, Keanu Mims, Jeffrey Faulkner and Elijah Danley finished 7th in the state. The Panthers won the opening heat on the strength of a great anchor run by Faulker, who surged past competitors from A.C. Reynolds and Union Pines at the finish line at 3:31.80. Cuthbertson won the state championship at 3:19.40.

The men’s 4×200 relay team of Faulkner, Mims, Danley and Gasiah Drewery came in 10th in the state at 1:32.82. Cuthbertson won another state championship at 1:26.41.

Orange’s 4×800 relay squad, which included Alden Cathey and Nicholas Pell, finished 11th at 8:39.04. Weddington won the 3A State Championship at 7:58.66

Orange’s Erin Mink was the only female state qualifier. A senior who also competed in the long jump and the triple jump this season, Mink finished eighth in the pole vault when she cleared ten feet. Emma Stone of Marvin Ridge won the 3A State Championship at 12-feet, six-inches.

This was the last official team event for Orange and Cedar Ridge as members of the Big 8 Conference. On August 16, when men’s soccer and women’s tennis officially start, the Panthers and the Red Wolves will become members of the new Central Conference.