News: GH opens invitational season with wins at Providence
2014
On August 23, the Falcons kicked off their invitational season with a trip to Charlotte to race in the Providence Invitational. Conditions were very hot and very humid for the early season race, but roughly 60 teams ran well over 1,000 runners in the day’s races. It was a great day for the team, though, as the Falcons won 3 of the 4 races for the 3rd straight year.
The first race of the day was the girls varsity race and the girls won over a very strong field of teams (78-112 over 2nd place Cardinal Gibbons). Elly Henes (19:16), Morgan Adams (19:31), Katie Tomasi (19:33), Kelly Fitzgerald (19:46), and Theresa Enright (20:01) paced the Falcons to victory.
The varsity boys competed in the second race and the field of teams was even deeper than the girls race with more than half of the top 15 overall teams in the state in the race. The team finished in 11th place with Henry Pehr (16:37), Michael Kolor (17:20), Brian Huitt (17:22), Michael Dudash (17:24), and Brendan Vasarhelyi (17:40) scoring points for GH. While the team’s finish was disappointing, 5 of the 10 runners in the race ran personal bests and the team ran no seniors in the day's events.
The third race of the day was the girl's JV race and, as usual, the girls looked very, very strong in this race, cruising to a victory (19-66 over second-place Providence). Samantha Kolor won her first career race (21:22) and was joined in the top 10 by Julia Zwierzynski (21:36), Sarah Taylor (21:38), Summer Hanks (21:40), Elizabeth Surratt (21:44), Brianne Vasarhelyi (21:46), and Emily Jordan (21:50).
The final race of the day was the JV Boys race and the Falcons cruised to the victory (42-85 over second-place Mt. Tabor). The boys were led by sophomore Jared Bowen-Kauth (17:28), sophomore Cole Hagstrom (17:31), sophomore Nick Veilleux (17:52), junior Sam Gallant (18:04), freshmen Matthew Kehn (18:09), sophomore Ryan Wagner (18:42), and sophomore Nick Brady (19:11).
Considering the heat and early season date, it was a very good day of racing for the Falcons. The next invitational is September 6th in Wilmington as the Seahawk Invitational changes venues and moves from UNCW to the fairgrounds near the Wilmington airport.