By Junious Smith III

DEEP RUN — South Lenoir has been handling business 3.1 miles at a time.

The Blue Devils' cross-country team has dominated the Eastern Carolina 2A since the conference's inception in 2012. The boys have won it all seven years — six of the seasons undefeated — and the girls are five-time conference champions with a pair of no-loss campaigns. South Lenoir coach Carlos Dodd said the team has taken pride in its abilities since the earliest stages.

"The team has been active since 2002 and that first team went undefeated," Dodd said. "We just had a boys team then and they ended up being three-time conference champions. As years passed, we were competing with powerhouses like Topsail and Croatan (in the East Central Conference) and were able to win the conference in some years."

Dodd said the mindset of the runners play a big role in the team's success, and there are plans to stay atop the ECC.

"The kids know that when they come into this program, they have to earn their spot," Dodd said. "They work hard with their training and they know the conference is tougher overall, so nothing will be given to us. Still, they want to go another year winning the conference with hopes of placing high in Regionals and competing in states.”

South Lenoir's Ian Ireland said finishing on top each year is a great feeling.

"It shows that the work we've put in throughout the year has helped, and when you're winning you forget about the pain you're in after running," Ireland said.

Along with developing chemistry with her teammates, Marina Castillo said there are lessons to take from cross-country which will last beyond South Lenoir.

"In this sport, it's good for later on in life," Castillo said. "It teaches you anything that you want to accomplish, you've got to work hard for."

South Lenoir participated in Saturday's N.C. Wesleyan High School Invitational, with the boys finishing second overall. Ireland had the second-fastest time of the race at 18:21, and three other Blue Devils cracked the Top 20: Vian Villa (15th), Derek Kopanski (19th) and Hunter Daniels (20th).

In the girls' race, South Lenoir didn't have enough runners to qualify for team play. Also, the first six runners in the race took a wrong turn and were disqualified, including Castillo, who finished third. Madeylyn Tucker officially finished 14th in the race.