North Lincoln Breaks State Record with 7th Straight XC Title

North Lincoln sets all-time state record with seventh straight cross country title

The North Lincoln girls cross country program didn’t just win the NCHSAA 5A state championship on Saturday; they rewrote the history books. By finishing with a team score of 18 at Ivey Redmon Park, the Knights secured their seventh consecutive team state title and established a new all-time record for the lowest team score in a North Carolina state meet. According to reporting from highschoolot.com, this performance surpassed the record of 19 that the Knights themselves set just one year ago.

In a sport where the margin for error is razor-thin, North Lincoln’s dominance was mathematically overwhelming. The perfect team score in cross country is 15, achieved when a school places its top five runners in the first five spots. The Knights fell just shy of perfection, placing 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 6th to reach that 18-point mark. This level of depth left the rest of the field trailing significantly, with the runner-up, Orange, finishing with 89 points.

Bella Jaworsky leads a historic individual run

Individual excellence anchored the team’s collective success. Bella Jaworsky claimed the state championship title with a time of 18:05.49. Her victory marks a continuation of a high-performance era for the program, following Olivia Ferraro’s individual championship in 2025. Jaworsky is the fifth North Lincoln runner to secure an individual first-place finish over the last eight seasons.

The Knights’ stranglehold on the podium was visible in the top ten finishers. Beyond Jaworsky, the team placed Kate Evonuk in second place (18:14.65), Cambelle Reffner in fourth (18:35.17), Finley Evans in fifth (18:56.02), and Ella Myers in sixth (18:57.23). This concentration of talent essentially decided the championship before the middle of the pack even crossed the line.

Rank	Runner	School	Time
1	Bella Jaworsky	North Lincoln	18:05.49
2	Kate Evonuk	North Lincoln	18:14.65
3	Reilly Jermyn	Orange	18:24.67
4	Cambelle Reffner	North Lincoln	18:35.17
5	Finley Evans	North Lincoln	18:56.02
6	Ella Myers	North Lincoln	18:57.23

A dynasty approaching the all-time mark

The scale of this achievement is best understood through the lens of North Carolina high school sports history. With seven straight titles, North Lincoln now holds the second-longest winning streak in the sport’s history. They currently trail only Cardinal Gibbons, which maintained a nine-year championship run from 2010 to 2018.

The statistical footprint of this program is nearly unprecedented. Over the last eight seasons, North Lincoln has captured 12 of the 16 available team and individual championships. This high win percentage highlights a level of consistency that transcends individual star athletes, suggesting a systemic culture of distance running excellence within the school.

The final team standings for the 2026 NCHSAA 5A championships were as follows:

North Lincoln: 18
Orange: 89
West Henderson: 108
Cedar Ridge: 140
Seaforth: 141
North Buncombe: 181
Croatan: 215
Jesse Carson: 243
Franklin: 252
West Carteret: 257

The Knights’ ability to consistently produce top-tier talent has created a significant gap between them and the rest of the 5A classification. While programs like Orange and West Henderson remain competitive, the mathematical distance between the first and second-place teams on Saturday underscores a period of dominance that may not be seen again for decades.

North Lincoln’s current seven-year streak now sits just two titles behind the all-time record held by Cardinal Gibbons.