Thursday, October 1, 2026
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Cherryville, NC (WNN) - The Cherryville cross country teams began their season this week, joining the other Ironmen Fall sports teams, and are now fully engaged. Although the weather is still hot, August is officially the beginning of Fall sports in high school athletics. Those hot days sometimes bring unexpected thunderstorms and rain that rearrange or delay events. That has been the case recently, yet all scheduled events have been completed. The biggest issue is that heat and humidity, combined with physical exertion, can lead to cramping, and some events have taken longer to complete as a result.
The teams are all highly competitive, although some are rebuilding after losing players to graduation, and in some cases, new coaches are at the helm. Some growing pains are to be expected during the adjustment period. Each team has had some success and some struggles, as is to be expected with so many personnel changes. The coaches and athletes have each worked very hard and show signs of improvement each week. The Southern Piedmont 2A/3A/4A Conference is extremely tough, especially with the mixture of classifications. Many teams have entered the conference schedule already and will soon see where they stack up.
Cross country is the only Fall sport, other than football, without coaching changes. Coaches Antonio Griggs and Callie Cooke return for another season. Both the men's and women's teams lost top runners to graduation; however, they have competitors standing in the wings to fill the void. The biggest obstacle this season will be the number of participants. It is not always easy to find student athletes willing to run 3.1 miles in 90-degree weather. 2025 was an excellent season for both teams, and 2026 began well with a preconference meet hosted by Shelby High School on August 25, 2026.
Coach Cooke's Lady Ironmen finished in second place among the five teams with enough runners to be eligible for scoring. West Lincoln won the meet with 30 points, followed by Cherryville in second with 72, Burns in third with 76, Shelby in fourth with 82, and Highland Tech in fifth with 92 points. The individual finishers for Cherryville were 6th Clara Skamarock with a time of 24:40.93, 8th Laighna Snider 25:59.94, 19th Ella Rayfield 30:49.65, 20th Lydia Skamarock 30:53.95, 29th Myla Parnell 37:07.45, and 31st Angela Detrinidad 37:18.06.
Coach Griggs' Ironmen runners did not have enough participants to be eligible for team scoring, but placed very well individually. The team scores were: Shelby in first place with 24 points; West Lincoln second with 37; East Gaston 110; Highland Tech 115; Stuart W. Cramer 1232; Lincolnton 147; and Bessemer City 186, in seventh place. Cherryville individual scores were 15th Geovanny Martinez 21:18.40, 16th Mason Powers 21:45.45, 29th Charlie Morgan 25:26.29, and 53rd Phoenix Poulter 32:48.77. The next meet for both teams will be held on September 8, at South Side Park in Newton, NC.
The Ironmen had their conference opener at home on August 26 as they hosted this year's surprise team, the West Lincoln Rebels. The Rebels came into this game averaging 4 goals per game and with a 4-1 record. The final score of West Lincoln 4 Cherryville 2 does not reflect how tightly contested this match played out. The Ironmen scored first as Cole Kelly shot a penalty kick that curved just to the right and over the head of the Rebels' goalkeeper at the 33:00 mark. Eight minutes later, at 25:00, West Lincoln tied the score 1-1. The rest of the first half was a defensive battle, and the score remained 1-1 at the half. Just as the break began, lightning strikes in the area caused a weather delay. When the second half resumed, so did the scoring. By the end of the match, West Lincoln scored 4 goals and Cherryville 2. The win improved the Rebels' record to 5-1 and 1-0, and Cherryville dropped to 1-3 and 0-1.
West Lincoln proved defense wins games by amassing 250 steals in the match; 35 of those were from Jerick Alvarado. Scoring for the Rebels was split between Jahmir Robinson, who had 2 goals and 2 shots on goal, and Edwin Ramirez, who had 2 goals, 6 shots on goal, and 2 assists. Stiven Sanchez led the team in shots on goal with 12 out of the team's 26. Goalkeeper Chase Driscoll allowed 2 goals on 7 shots on goal and made 5 saves. Cole Kelly scored both of Cherryville's goals, taking 4 shots on goal. Geovanny Martinez attempted 2 shots on goal, and Trevor Dalton 1. Alex Alvarez had 1 assist. Goalkeeper Ethan Johnsen had quite a workout for the Ironmen, making 20 saves while allowing only 4 goals. Next up for the Ironmen will be two more conference matches. They travel to Lincolnton on August 31 and will be home to host East Gaston on September 2.
The Lady Ironmen hosted the ladies of Piedmont Community Charter on August 27. Cherryville fell 6-3 and is now 0-2. They will begin conference play with their next match at Lincolnton on September 8. Results for the singles matches were, Morgan Parker (PCC) defeated Morgan Wray (CHS) 8-1, Jillian Barnette (PCC) defeated Laney Spangler (CHS) 8-3, Lucy Gutierrez (PCC) defeated Bailey Bryant (CHS) 9-7, Annabelle Gutierrez (PCC) defeated Laney Jones (CHS) 8-3, Maddie Avery (CHS) defeated Vallie Abraham (PCC) 8-6, and Ava Freeman (CHS) defeated Caylin Jones (PCC) 8-4. In double actions, the results were, Jillian Barnette and Morgan Parker (PCC) defeated Laney Spangler and Morgan Wray (CHS) 8-4, Annabelle Gutierrez and Lucy Gutierrez (PCC) defeated Bailey Bryant and Laney Jones (CHS) 8-5, and the team of Ava Freeman and Maddie Avery (CHS) defeated Vallie Abraham and Caylin Jones (PCC) 8-3.
The Lady Ironmen continued conference play this week with two home matches. Cherryville lost both matches 3-0 and is now 2-3 overall and 0-3 in the conference. The Lady Ironmen are still trying to build team chemistry and define roles after losing most of their starting lineup from last season.
The first match of the week was on August 25, hosting East Gaston. In the first set, the Lady Warriors went up early, but Cherryville fought back twice to get close, but just didn't have enough as East Gaston won that set 25-16. The second set was all East Gaston as they built a huge lead early and never looked back, winning 25-11. The third set, the Lady Ironmen struggled to get on track as they fell 25-9. East Gaston recorded 32 kills, 47 digs, and served 9 aces.
The second match was against Highland Tech on August 27. The first set was very tight. There were many lead changes, with most leads only 1-2 points. It was an evenly matched set; Cherryville ran off four straight points before the Lady Rams took control late for a 25-21 victory. The second set began similarly. The Lady Ironmen got down early but battled back. Highland then went on a big scoring run, and Cherryville once again battled back. Cherryville had no answer when the Lady Rams went on their final run and eventually won 25-14. In the third set, Highland won 25-17. The Lady Rams served 17 aces on the night and recorded 39 kills and 32 digs. Cherryville has a busy week ahead with three matches on the schedule. On September 1, they will travel to Burns; on September 2, they return home to host Piedmont Community Charter; and on September 3, there is a home match against Shelby.
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