The North Moore boys’ and girls’ cross country teams had impressive showings in the Yadkin Valley Conference preseason meet hosted by Gray Stone at Albemarle’s Chuck Morehead Park Aug. 21.

The Lady Mustangs finished second behind defending conference champion Gray Stone, while the boys’ team took third place behind Gray Stone and Chatham Central. The boys’ team finished ahead of last year’s champion West Montgomery.

According to coach Chris Coble, the girls’ team was missing two of their top runners, including senior Miranda Freeman, who was the Mustangs’ second best runner last year.

Leading the way for the Mustang girls was senior Jourdan Wofford, who took ninth place overall in the meet that featured all nine teams from the conference. Following Wofford for the Mustangs were freshman Haley Davis in 11th place, sophomore Merlin Cabrerra 13th, freshman Lauren DeView 14th, and freshman Stephanie Maness in the top 20.

“What I thought was outstanding about the girls’ showing was Jourdan led the way as a senior, and then scoring for us was a freshman, sophomore, freshman and freshman,” said Coble. “So it was a great start for our young runners on the toughest course we will run all year.”

In the boys’ meet, the team finished only two points out of second place with two of Coble’s top seven runners from last year missing the meet. Senior Alex Landers, who was all-conference last year, paced the Mustangs, finishing fourth overall in a race that featured 115 runners. Following Landers for North Moore was sophomore Tristan Mackey at ninth place, freshman Tyler Hunsucker 10th, senior Luke Moore 23rd and freshman Ivan Benjume 25th.

“I couldn’t be prouder of how the team ran on Tuesday,” said Coble. “I though it was a great start and it was good to see the great effort we have been putting forth in practice showed during this meet. With all nine teams in the conference participating, we wanted to have a good showing and the kids did a super job of showing how hard they have been working. It’s a long season and we will just take it week by week, working to get better and faster as the season progresses.”

North Moore travels to cross-county rival O’Neal Thursday for a nonconference meet.