Union Pines' cross country teams swept the Harnett Central Trojans in convincing fashion, Wednesday in Cameron. The Viking boys won 20-42, while the girls took their meet by a score of 19-42.

On the first autumn-like day of the season, several Vikings took advantage of the cooler temperature by setting personal best records in the meet.

"Today was perfect weather for running," said Union Pines head coach Nat Carter after the races.

Will McCoy, Josh Bryant, Joseph Morris, Brandon Berry, Dylan Blue, Brittney Stevens, Alyssa Radel and Courtney Voss.

The Viking boys claimed second through eighth places in their meet. Junior Brandon Peeken led the way for Union Pines with a time of 17:32 to finish second. McCoy (17:47) came in third and Bryant (17:57) broke the 18-minute mark for the first time in his career to claim fourth. Morris finished fifth with a time of 18:17 and Berry (18:37) took sixth place. Blue took seventh place with a time of 18:44, nearly two minutes better than his previous personal best.

McCoy felt the weather was ideal for cross country competition.

"This was a really great race for us," he said, "and I am glad the weather was great out here today. Our depth is strong and mostly it is a result of hard work. It is not that we have a lot of people, it is that we have a lot of people that work hard and want to be good and work for this and it is really starting to pay off now."

Both teams are 4-0 in the conference.

Stevens, a sophomore, set a blistering pace in the girls' race and won the meet with a time of 21:11. Senior captain Victoria Glenn (21:54) took second place. Vike freshman Radel (22:14) and sophomore Voss (22:34) then claimed spots four and five. Union Pines' junior captain Kayla Lively came in seventh with a time of 23:12.

Lively is really excited with the way the Viking girls' season is shaping up like the team hoped.

"So far we have pretty much been dominating," Lively said. "We had a perfect score last week (at Gray's Creek) and stepped up pretty nicely in this race.

"We have been conditioning well, and have good team bonding, which is wonderful. The practices are fun and Coach Carter just has an awesome attitude. If we can keep this up, I definitely like our chances of defending as conference champions. I also think we will go to the regional and probably place there and go to the state meet."

Both the Union Pines' boys and girls teams are back in action this Wednesday, when they travel to Erwin to take on Triton in a conference meet.

Contact F.W. Manning II at 639-5481 or by e-mail at fwm2@nc.rr. com.