Green Hope Cross Country

Around 90 Falcons runners made their way west on Highway 64 and up 421 north to Hagan Stone Park on September 28 for the Greensboro Invitational. Conditions were perfect for an early fall cross country race and the times on the day reflected the temps and the great training the runners have been doing.

The first race of the day was the Boys JV race and the Falcons dominated the 26 team field, as they scored a perfect 15. The first 6 to cross the line (and 10 of the 1st 11) were Falcons, led by Owen Dreikosen, Sam Gallant, and Ashish Amin, as all 3 ran 17:57. 24 boys ran their all-time PR.

The Girls JV race began 15 minutes after the start of the boys race and the girls made every effort to outdo the boys by sweeping the top 10 spots in the race to also earn a score of 15. Emily Jordan led start to finish and dominated the race, running a PR of 20:08. Morgan Adams, Kayla Hall, Anastasia Horvat, and Ally Wells were in a tight pack between 20:37 and 20:45 to close out the scoring for the Falcons. 18 girls ran their career PR in this race.

The third race of the day was the Boys Developmental Race (second 7 or weaker varsity teams) and the boys won again with a score of 71, winning by 123 points over second place Chapel Hill and dominating a field of 40 total team. The boys were led by top 12 finishers Patrick Stylski (17:28), Corey Colberg (17:49), Ted MacCabe (17:51), and Brian Huitt (18:00).

The girls Developmental team made it 4 straight wins for GH on the day as they cruised to another perfect score of 15 (over a field of 23 teams). The 5 scoring runners were Sheridan Wood (20:02), Martina Savage (20:14), Julia Zwierzynski (20:17), Gillian Hagenus (20:28), and Samantha Kolor (20:32).

4 of the 7 boys in the championship race ran career PRs, but the boys finished in 4th place. The boys had a good pack time, but just need to move that pack up a little to earn a bid to the state meet in a few weeks. Tom Nobles led the way with a time of 16:24, while Brad Pehr (16:44), Will Jordan (16:47), Henry Pehr (16:49), and Carter Lux (16:54) rounded out the scoring. Carter Lux moved into third place on the all-time GH freshman runner list.

The final race of the day was the girls championship race and the girls easily won their 3rd major invitational of the year. Elly Henes (18:18) and Katie Tomasi (19:03) took it out fast early and were followed by Theresa Enright (19:16), Reilly Caldwell (19:31), and Elisa Sargent (19:32) as the girls scored 67 points to beat 2nd place Reagan (103 pts) and the other 22 teams in the race.

Overall it was another very good day for GHXC. The team won 5 of the 6 races they entered with 3 individual winners. The boys team had 39 runners break 20:00 on the day—the most ever in an invitational. The girls were not to be outdone as they had 39 under 24:00—also the most ever for an invitational. Next Saturday the Falcons will hit the trails again in the Great American Cross Country Festival—one of the top races of the year in the southeastern U.S.