The Pinecrest boys’ and girls’ cross country teams both posted top-10 finishes in their respective races at Saturday’s Great American Cross Country Festival held at Wake Med Soccer Park in Cary.

Almost 2,500 runners from a dozen states competed in 13 5K races. The most competitive tier was the Race of Champions, followed by the Invitational Seeded and Invitational Red.

The Patriot boys came in third in the Invitational Seeded race, 29 points behind first-place Stone Bridge (Va). They were led by Will Pearson, 23rd place, (16:30), Jacob Troutman, 24th (16:31) and Becket Killam, 25th (16:32). The point total for the Patriot boys also included Mathew Harmody, 53rd (16:53), and Javier Bustos, 56th (16:54).

Teams were placed in race tiers based upon the times submitted to meet officials by the coaches. The Patriot girls finished sixth in the Invitational Red race won by Shaker High School (N.Y.)

Six of the seven Patriot runners posted season-best times, finishing within 50 seconds of each other. They were Jaleigh Jensen, 20th (20:03), Sarah Pressley, 25th (20:07), Mulloy Manning, 42nd (20:31), Kelsey Rea, 60th (20:49), Katie Hayes, 64th (20:52), and Zia Matti, 68th (20:53).

Sarah Klug, 26th (21:22), was the top Patriot finisher in the Invitational Blue Race.

Pinecrest hosted a Southeastern Conference tri-meet at the Southern Pines Elks Club course on Tuesday. On Saturday, the Patriot boys will compete at the Wendy’s Invitational held at McAlpine Park in Charlotte. The Patriot girls are entered in the Hagan Stone Cross Country Classic in Greensboro.

During halftime of last Friday night’s football game between Pinecrest and New Hanover, members of the Pinecrest cross country team presented a check for $5,100 to Todd Maness of the Pinehurst Police Department in behalf of Operation One Voice.

The mission of the organization, founded and directed by fire and police department members, is to provide severely wounded Special Operations soldiers with hand-cranked and specially fitted bicycles that aid in rehabilitation.

From these funds, specialized bikes will be provided for One Voice’s Wounded Special Operations Cycling Team that will serve as ambassadors to other wounded soldiers and encourage those heroes to get on the bike on the road to recovery.

Families and friends of the cross country team raised the funds as part of the Patriot 5K Independence Day Race.

Nearly half of the Pinecrest runners are dependents of active duty or retired military service members.