By Andrew Pearson
High School Sports Editor at Asheville Citizen-Times
ASHEVILLE — Two seniors from Western North Carolina have found their way into the conversation, and given the company, that’s saying a lot.
Who is the top distance runner in the history of the Asheville High boys and Roberson girls programs?
Isaac Presson and Laura Hoer raised a doubt 3.1 miles at a time during their final high school cross-country seasons.
Together, they are the Citizen-Times All-WNC Runners of the Year.
“Everything about this season as a whole went really well,” Hoer said.
“I couldn’t be more proud of what our team has done. And I couldn’t do anything without the support of my coach and teammates.”
So what did Hoer do?
She became the first NCHSAA 4-A champion for the Rams in any sport by running a time of 18 minutes, 13.01 seconds on Nov. 7. Team-wise, Roberson (60 points) finished second in its first year of 4-A competition to Green Hope (47).
Hoer also qualified for the postseason Nike Cross Nationals meet on Dec. 5, which earned the harrier a trip to Portland, Ore.
No one at Roberson had put themselves in that sort of position since Sarah-Vance Goodman reached the Foot Locker national meet in 1996.
“The trip out west was one of the best experiences of my life,” Hoer said.
“Knowing who we were going to race this season, a lot of this was something that ever occurred in my mind at all.”
Presson was nearly as impressive for the Mountain Athletic Conference and 3-A Western Regional champion Cougars.
The middle-distance track star branched out to shave 30 seconds off his personal-best time for five kilometers (15:13). That was only three seconds off the 3-A record time (15:10) held by former Asheville runner Milos Mitric.
Presson also placed third at the NCHSAA 3-A meet and smashed a school-record for the 3,200-meter run (9:14) during a tune-up track race in November.
“I think experience has helped me a lot with my racing,” Presson said.
“As a younger runner, I would have gone out harder in the early parts of races, but now I’m able to pick people off. I’ve always been more of a track guy, but I’m just excited now to see if I can carry this over.”
Note: Article from Citizen-Times.com
