BERMUDA RUN - West Johnston's boys and girls cross country teams both turned in their best team finishes in the school's short but already growing history Saturday at the NCHSAA state championships at Tanglewood.

The West boys, although hoping for more, took third in the state; the Wildcat girls finished fourth. West's boys were sixth in last year's state championships, while the Wildcat girls finished fifth.

West's depth was the most important factor in its high boys' finish. Running without the individual state title contenders the Wildcats have enjoyed in past years with Dakota Lowery and Dakota Peachee, West used a patient strategy throughout the race that paid off in five runners finishing among the top-60.

Senior Chad Massengill, running in his fourth state championship race, led the Wildcats with a 14th place finish, individually. Massengill clocked in at 16:35.4.

"It was a pretty good race," Massengill said. "We wanted to make sure we didn't go out too quickly. I had a feeling we'd get boxed in but we didn't want to go out too fast, so we kind of took it easy to start with."

Fellow senior Eric Baldwin was just behind Massengill in 16th at 16:39.18.

"When we got into the loop for the second time, things started to stretch out a little bit," Massengill said. "I was able to get by people as best as I could and was able to move up pretty well."

Chris Garrett, a junior, took 22^nd in 16:47.15.

"The boys ran really solidly," said West Johnston coach Patrick Shaw. "We knew we had a chance to win and we just weren't quite good enough to do it. We ran solidly on a day that it would have taken a spectacular run to win. There's no shame in that."

The Wildcats finished with 106 team points. Runner-up Broughton totaled 92 points and Sanderson took home the state title with 89 points.

"We just got beat," Shaw said. "Five seconds here, five seconds there and there's a huge difference. The hard thing here is that five seconds can make a really big difference."

Sophomores Bobby Baraldi (42^nd in 17:14.88) and Jeremy Gower (52^nd in 17:20.71) were West's next two runners. Ben Schoeneman (63^rd) and Chris McGuire (110^th) rounded out the Wildcat runners.

West's girls took fourth behind state champ Green Hope, Asheville T.C. Roberson and Fayetteville Terry Sanford.

"The girls were good today," Shaw said. "We finished fourth and the only teams to beat us were two great teams in Green Hope and Roberson and then Terry Sanford, which beat us at regionals last week."

Ashley Matthews, a West senior, ran in the middle of the top-10 for most of the race but fell back late, finishing 14^th in 19:05.77.

"Ashley and Kelly [Montague] were both a little disappointed," Shaw said. "But Ashley ended up beating [former West standout and state track champion] Maraya Slatter's time here last year by a second.

"And sometimes great runners have tough days here. That's what happened to Kelly today."

Montague, another senior, finished a still solid 26^th in the state at 19:33.78. Lauren Pollard (58^th), Dakota Foskey (66^th), Megan Mattes (73^rd), Scarlett Beamon (78^th) and Allie Mercado (116^th) rounded out the Wildcats' contingent.

Clayton's individual entries -- Catie Simmons and Charity Lacky -- both posted times in the 20-minute range at Tanglewood. Simmons was 40^th in 20:02.22, while Lacky finished 51^st in 20:21.28.

The Comets' Ryan Rudisill finished 99^th on the boys' side, clocking in at 18:04.85.

South Johnston runners Cirilo Perez and Nathan Raynor ran in the 3-A state finals. Perez took 35^h in 17:40.96, while Raynor was 68^th (18:05.59).

Princeton's two underclassmen-heavy squads ran in the 1-A state finals. The Bulldogs finished 16^th in both team standing rundowns but will return 13 of the 14 runners who ran at Tanglewood on Saturday.

Freshman Will Toler led the Bulldog boys with a 70^th place finish at 19:16.80. Ethan Anderson placed 99^th for Princeton as well.

Hattie Dougherty was 71^st in the girls race at 24:46.83. Senior Katherine Lampe placed 118^th in her final cross country race.