The individual race in the N.C. High School Athletic Association 1A boys cross country state championship wasn’t exactly close on Saturday afternoon at the Ivey M. Redmon Sports Complex in Kernersville.

With the only sub-16-minute time, Northside-Pinetown’s Andrew Harding claimed the 1A state championship, posting a time of 15:28.84.

Harding set a new 1A record for the course and for the 1A state championship meet across all venues. Christ the King’s Blake Nicholson set both records last fall with a time of 15:36.84, but Harding beat that time by exactly eight seconds.

Harding is also the first athlete at Northside-Pinetown to win a cross country state championship.

Hiwassee Dam’s Ethan Russell was the runner-up in the individual race. Russell crossed the finish line with 16:03.91, about 13 seconds ahead of third-place Blake Nicholson of Christ the King, who posted a time of 16:16.87.

Carl Baird of Swain County (16:22.61) and Ogana Swimmer of Cherokee (16:23.72) were fourth and fifth respectively.

In the team standings, Lejeune narrowly beat out Corvian Community School to win the 1A boys cross country team championship for the second straight season. The Devilpups finished with 74 points, while the Cardinals were four points behind with 78.

Lejeune was led by Ralph Pfeil, who placed sixth with a time of 17:01.90. The Devilpups also got a 21st place finish from Matthew Barbabella (17:37.12) and a 23rd place finish from Jude Keller (17:42.01).

Corvian Community was led by Andrew Lyall (17:23.98) and Carson Williams (17:26.02) who finished 12th and 13th respectively.

Hiwassee Dam (156), N.C. Leadership Academy (162), and South Davidson (167) rounded out the top five in the team standings.