First Flight junior Kayla Folkes wins state title in women’s cross country
- Corinne Saunders
- Nov 12
- 6 min read
Freshman Kiah Smith takes second place
Kayla Folkes (foreground) and Kiah Smith run a practice lap around the First Flight High School track the afternoon of Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. Folkes and Smith placed first and second, respectively, in the 4A women’s cross country state championship. (Photo by Corinne Saunders)
By Corinne Saunders
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KILL DEVIL HILLS — A First Flight High School junior recently won the 4A women’s cross country state championship.
Kayla Folkes, 16, ran the state championship 5K in 18 minutes and 33.63 seconds, according to the official North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) results, putting her in front by over 40 seconds.
Folkes called winning a “very rewarding feeling” following months of training and running daily.
“I knew I was seeded, like, to win by kind of a big chunk, so I kind of just knew like I wanted to take it out from the start and just kind of try and make a gap, which I fulfilled,” Folkes told Outer Banks Insider. “[It] was definitely hard out there like trying to push myself alone because I’m not normally used to that.”
The 2025 NCHSAA Cross Country State Championships took place Oct. 31-Nov. 1 in Kernersville, and 138 runners competed. The First Flight High School women’s team placed fifth overall.
This was Folkes’ first state title in cross country but her second state win in running events so far in her high school career. As a ninth-grader, she won the 1,000-meter race in the 2024 Indoor Track and Field State Championships.
The varied terrain, hills and longer distance made this win more challenging than the track win, she opined. Her favorite race is the one-mile.
“It was more rewarding to win cross country because that’s typically not my strong suit,” Folkes said.
Also, teammate Morgan Miller is usually running cross country, too—but an injury led the senior to not compete this year.
Miller won the past two state titles in cross country, with times of 18 minutes and 4.99 seconds last year and 18 minutes and 5.84 seconds in 2023, according to HighSchoolOT.com.
“She’s kind of out, which has been a struggle to like run without a teammate,” Folkes said. “Her injury has made me like appreciate it more, so I think kind of just like enjoying the process and just kind of like doing like track workouts alone or like pushing myself alone.”
Jessica Folkes, head cross country coach at First Flight High School and Kayla Folkes’ mom, called Miller “one of the most dedicated athletes to ever come through First Flight.” She said her daughter, who takes her training seriously and plans her days around her runs, has learned a lot from Miller.
Kayla Folkes is the only team member Jessica Folkes isn’t directly coaching, she said: Former coach Dan Murray coaches and creates her daughter’s workouts.
“Ever since her freshman year, he has been a huge part of her success and has physically and mentally trained her to be where she is now,” Jessica Folkes said.
“Kayla and I are both very lucky to have him still coaching her, because even though we have a great relationship and she respects me as the coach of the team and mom, continuing to work with him has been the best thing for her,” she added.
“As for raising a state champion, I am just so proud of her!” she said. “Watching Kayla cross the line was unbelievable.”
Kayla Folkes smiles before before training the afternoon of Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (Photo by Corinne Saunders)
View Outer Banks Insider’s video interview with Kayla Folkes here.
A one-two finish
Finishing behind Kayla Folkes and six seconds in front of the third-place runner was First Flight High School freshman Kiah Smith, with a time of 19 minutes and 15.17 seconds.
“It was really cool that me and Kayla got to get first and second,” Smith, 14, said at the start of practice last Thursday. “It was hard, but it was like a good hard that like challenged us.”
She opined that it was a “super great experience that we got to run that with all those people...it was really fun to do it.”
Smith said she wanted to get second or third, but got a bit nervous before the race and figured she could place in the top 10. Once in the race, though, she decided she should try to pass people to finish second.
Jessica Folkes said she knew Smith, whom she called naturally competitive, could place second if she did not start too fast.
“She did exactly what I said and went out in the back of the first pack, and then at the mile to just start [sic] picking people off,” Jessica Folkes said in an email. “She crossed the line and when Kayla ran over to her to hug her she said, 'Kayla, we did it! We got 1st and 2nd!’ It was the sweetest moment. Kayla has been a great mentor to Kiah all season.”
Smith, who plays soccer, ran track all three years in middle school but was not originally planning to run cross county in high school.
“Ms. Jessica, her mom, got me to do it,” Smith said with a smile. “I’m actually very glad I did.”
Kayla Folkes similarly began running track in middle school as a filler season, with plans to play high school soccer and basketball. But then she began to seriously focus on running in high school instead, she told this reporter after winning her state title in track.
Now, she runs nearly every day, participating in cross country, indoor and outdoor track.
With no indoor track in the area, the athletes practice outdoors during that sport’s winter season.
“It’s pretty brutal here,” Folkes said. “Sometimes I show up in like a puffer jacket for the start of like the first two laps...we kind of just run outside, pretty much. It’s not really much indoor track except for a few indoor meets.”
First Flight High School was in the 3A division until this year’s move to 4A as a significant statewide realignment from a total of four to eight classifications. The smallest schools by student population compete in 1A, but instead of 4A being the division with largest schools, as it was last year, now 8A is the division with the largest schools.
Kayla Folkes said that she and another junior plus five freshmen composed the women’s cross country team competing at states. She noted how proud she was, especially of the freshmen, whom she said are all invested in the sport even without the influence of many upperclassmen.
“Our team’s very young,” she said. “I was really proud of them.”
Jessica Folkes similarly said that the entire team consistently put in the work all season without complaining. She also said that her daughter served as a strong team leader.
“Kayla pays attention to all the details, from warmups to dynamics,” she said. “This year, she stepped up as the team leader, guiding a group of new runners, including six freshmen, with great success.”
Jessica Folkes thanked everyone who supported her daughter’s championship success, including Coach Murray, the three assistant cross country coaches—Gray Berryman, Macey White and Amy Denson—“her grandparents who attend every meet, her dad, her friends and all who support her...All the support means the world.”
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