William Lenker 
Emma Ashley
SPARTANBURG – Westwood and Blythewood Cross Country runners competed in the Eye Opener 2021 at the Roger Miliken Center in Spartanburg last weekend.
The Blythewood and Westwood boys finished 15th and 16th, respectively, out of 51 teams and 406 runners.
Senior William Lenker was the top finisher for the Bengals, pulling a time of 17:22.00 and a 9th place overall finish. Spencer Shealy finished in 30th place overall at 18:01.70, and Barry Hardy finished 54th overall at 18:33.80. Eureka Washington had a time of 19:35.10. Gyles Gregory finished at 21:24.80 to round out the Bengals top five finishers.
William Tyndall crossed the finish line first for Westwood. Tyndall placed 24th overall with a 17:54.90 time. He was followed by Aidan Keck, at 18:85.00 for 87th place overall, Joe Eberlin (19:09.50) for 103rd place, Bryce Strickland, at 19:49.00 in 158th place overall and Caden Henderson in 196th place overall at 20:17.20.
Westwood freshman Emma Ashley again topped the Westwood girls’ team. With a time of 20:33.40, Ashley finished 10th out of 344 runners to help the girls’ team finish 37th place out of 45 teams. Freshman Christina Tisdale followed Ashley with a time of 24:18.10. Parker Horton (28:10.80), Isabelle Ridgeway (29:12.40) and Annalisa Athanas (30:08.60) rounded out the Redhawks’ top 5 runners.
Westwood will run in the Trojan Invitational at Northwestern on Saturday. The Bengals are set to run in the Mike More Lake Murray Invitational on Sept. 18.
