The O’Neal boys secured a second-place finish at the conference cross country championship Tuesday at the Carolina Horse Park.

The Falcon boys finished with a team score of 63 points in the Cape Fear Independent Conference final meet. Fayetteville Christian took first with a team score of 48.

In the girls’ competition, the Falcons finished third with 69 points, trailing Cape Fear Academy (first, 32 points) and Fayetteville Academy (second, 65 points).

Falcon senior captain Austin Puleo led the way for the boys, finishing in third with a time of 18:48. Puleo was followed by fellow senior Alexander Waddell, a first-time team member and first-time all-conference runner, in seventh place with a time of 19:23. Rounding out the team scoring for the Falcons were Josh Russell (13th, 20:43), Josh Hager (19th, 21:39) and Kyle Flechsig (21st, 21:48).

Also competing for the Falcons, but not scoring points, were Matt Hutchens (23rd, 22:03), Tomi Lawal (25th, 22:10), Dakota Merritt (33rd, 24:47), Alex Stroud (39th, 26:47), John Anderson (40th, 26:48), Spencer Barr (43rd, 28:49) and T.C. Mann (44th, 29:42).

For the girls, Savannah Merritt posted a 21:59 time to capture second place in the race.

Falcon captain Alana Godbey took a hard fall downhill at the 1.5-mile mark. Bruised and bleeding, she rallied to finish at 13th in 24:56. Other runners scoring points for the Falcon girls were Hunter Atkinson (14th, 25:16), Aleksandra Majka (19th, 26:14) and Allison Johnson (21st, 26:20).

Other runners for the Falcons, but not providing points, were Bronti Viskovich (23rd, 27:00), Elizabeth Trexler (24th, 27:02), Megan Bloom (31st, 29:01) and Lara Allen (32nd, 29:42).

The last competition of the season for the teams will take place next Friday in the North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association state championship set for McAlpine Park in Charlotte.