Five Cape Fear Independent Conference teams converged on the Sandhills campus Wednesday for a cross country race hosted by O’Neal.

Running on their home course, both the O’Neal boys’ and girls’ teams finished in second place in the five-team field with identical scores of 62 points.

Junior Savannah Merritt drove forward in a time of 21:50 to pace the Falcon girls with a second place finish. Her time moved her into second place on the all-time list, just 13 seconds from a new school record.

Coming in 10th place was Hunter Atkinson, the Falcons’ surprising eighth-grade talent, with a season personal best time of 24:52. In 11th, senior captain Alana Godbey produced a 25:12 time in the last home race of her high school career. Aleksandra Majka stepped in at 17th with a 26:49, ahead of teammate Bronti Viskovich, who finished 22nd with a time of 27:20.

Recording the last two scoring places for the Falcons were Allison Johnson in 25th with a new personal best time of 27:43 and Meagan Bloom in 29th with a time of 29:47. Lara Allen also competed for the Falcons, finishing in 33rd with a time of 31:46.

For the Falcon boys, captain Austin Puleo led way with a second-place finish in a time of 19:01. Puleo was followed by Alexander Waddell in ninth (21:54). Claiming the next two scoring spots for the Falcons were Josh Russell (15th, 21:57) and Josh Hager (16th, 22:05). In the final scoring position for O’Neal was Kyle Flechsig (22nd, 22:34).

Other Falcon competitors were Matt Hutchens (24th, 22:53), Tomi Lawal (25th, 22:56), John Anderson (37th, 27:47), Dakota Merritt (41st, 28:20), Alex Stroud (42nd, 28:47) and Spencer Barr (45th, 32:07).

The two teams race at Lee Christian in Sanford on Tuesday.