SEVEN SPRINGS - The Princeton boys and girls cross country teams both earned second place in the team scores Wednesday at the Carolina 1-A Conference championship meet.

Junior Hattie Dougherty finished second in the girls race, while freshman Will Toler was the runner-up in the boys race.

"Hattie's just one of those kids that works hard everyday," Princeton coach Marty Gurganus said. "She runs with the boys most of the time. She's just a champion."

Jessica Lewis, generally one of Princeton's five best runners on the girls' side, did not make the trip due to illness.

After running on the course at Cliffs of the Neuse State Park twice already this season, both Dougherty (24:11) and Toler (19:16) improved their times from earlier races at Spring Creek's home course.

Despite his youth, Toler trailed winner Nick Britt of Rosewood by just five seconds at the finish line.

"I think he's just a natural runner," Gurganus said of Toler. "I thought he did a good job of keeping up with Nick Britt today. Nick has just been great for Rosewood. Coming in second at this course is a pretty good job."

Rosewood won the girls' race with 22 points and six runners placing in the top 10 including Holly Heath, Jennifer Page, Kelsey Kornegay, Autumn Goff, Meghan Millard and Alexa Hinnant.

Spring Creek's Savannah Egeleston crossed the finish line first in 23:55 as the Gators' only runner.

Since Spring Creek did not have enough runners to qualify as a team, Egeleston's time did not count in the team standings.

Dougherty finished in 24:11, short of her personal best of 22:12.

"It's normally between me and her," said Dougherty after the race. "It's her home course and she did really well. I had my best time here so she was just really fast today."

Bulldog runners Sarah Toler (27:44) and Katherine Lampe (28:58) finished sixth and seventh, respectively, in the girls' race.

Kayla Hagans was 10th with a time of 30:53.

North Duplin won the boys' race with 44 points while the Bulldogs finished second with 60.

Ethan Anderson came in 10th overall for Princeton with a 20:59 time. Chris Dewberry followed with a time of 21:07, with Tyler Daniels finishing 12th in 21:17.

"If we can get healthy, I think we can compete very well at the regionals," Gurganus said. "I'm just very proud of both boys and girls for what they've done all season."

Princeton will go to the 1-A Mideast Region meet at Rocky Point Trask High School on Saturday.