The Mathews High School cross country team traveled to Great Meadow in Northern Virginia on Saturday to compete in the Octoberfest XC Invitational. Mathews was the underdog as the only Group 1A team competing.

The Devils were competitive against teams of much higher divisions, such as the winner of the boys’ race, Battlefield, a 6A team.

The MHS boys came in fourth place out of 18 teams. Justin Adams led the pack again for the Devils, finishing second after leading for most of the race. His time was a 17:19. The next runner from Mathews was Jalen Thomas at a time of 18:41, followed soon after by Sam Jasinski in 18:59. Then came Lance South and Cody Kelly to round out the top five runners at 19:22 and 19:37, respectively.  The girls’ team came in sixth out of 16 teams. The first female finisher for Mathews was Rileigh Betz in 11th place at 21:30. Not long after, Reilly Price finished in 22 minutes flat and she was followed by Maddy Hobert, running 22:22. Emma Hudgins ...