Ardrey Kell served notice that it will be a force this season in girls' cross country and Marvin Ridge's Chris Colo ran a solid opening meet performance to establish himself as one of the top 3A boys in North Carolina at the Providence Invitational on Saturday at McAlpine Park.

Both finished second in a meet that featured 40 schools and more than 1,400 runners from the Carolinas.

"The important thing was that we had six girls under 21 (minutes) and we had four break 20:04," said Ardrey Kell coach Brian Zelk of his team's surprise runner-up finish to Cary Green Hope, last year's N.C. 4A champions. "We had no seniors in that top group. ... It was definitely a great effort."

Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons' Sarah Rapp, last year's N.C. 3A champ, won with a meet record 18 minutes, 27 seconds over the 5K course, outdistancing Davie County's Anna McBride and Green Hope's Jessie Rossabi, who both ran 18:40.

Rossabi led Green Hope, ranked 8th nationally by ESPN/Rise, to a dominating performance as her team took six of the top 11 places (with each of them under 19:17) to score 27 points. Ardrey Kell had 97. The other top local teams were Weddington (sixth, 220); Lake Norman (eighth, 240); Charlotte Catholic (ninth, 254) and Marvin Ridge (10th, 283).

Leading Ardrey Kell were Kaitlyn Kramer (14th place, 19 minutes, 32 seconds), Samantha Teague (16th, 19:44), Heather Green (17th, 19:46) and Sydney Teague (22nd, 20:03).

In the boys' race, Colo came up just short.

Colo, last year's N.C. 3A runner-up, ran with Green Hope's Ryan Walling deep into the second mile of the 3.1-mile race, but Walling pulled away to win, 15:38 to 15:45. Still, it was one of Colo's best 5K performances.

"I wanted to win," Colo said. "I think it's still a pretty good time. It's a big race. I'm satisfied."

Raleigh Brouhton, last year's N.C. 4A runner-up, outdistanced last year's S.C. 3A champ, Hilton Head, 77-96, for the team title. The top local teams were Ardrey Kell (fifth, 132), Marvin Ridge (seventh, 183), Charlotte Catholic (eighth, 253) and East Rowan (ninth, 290).

Latin's Dawe wins WNC Carnival

Charlotte Latin's Haylee Dawe won the Championship Division of the Western N.C. Carnival at Jackson Park in Hendersonville, outdistancing Asheville TC Roberson's Brooke Gordon, 18:48 to 18:56.

Latin's Ally Finical was sixth (19:37) and Kameron Spence was seventh (19:38) to help Latin, last year's NCISAA 3A champ, to a runner-up finish behind Chapel Hill, last year's N.C. 3A champ, 62-68.

In the boys' race, Concord Cannon School's Tim Gruber, last year's CISAA champ, finished runner-up to Cary Academy's Thomas Graham, last year's NCISAA 3A champ, 15:28 to 16:06.

Providence Day's boys, led by Ben Huffman (16:53) and Jacob Dordick (17:12) finished fourth (173). Chapel Hill, the reigning N.C. 3A champ, won (29), Morristown, Tenn. (79) was second and TC Roberson (99) was third.