Green Hope Cross Country

The Falcons competed in the SWAC Championship races on Wednesday, October 16, at Wake Med Soccer Park. The day marked the end of the cross country season for most of the team members, but it was a great day of racing and many runners set their new PR (personal record time).

The first race of the day was the boys championship. Apex was the clear favorite going into the race and they held serve, winning the conference championship for the first time since 2001. The Green Hope boys knew they would be in a battle with Cary for the conference runner-up spot, but Cary edged out the Falcons by 4 pts (59-63). Tom Nobles led the Falcons in 16:00 and he was followed by Will Jordan (16:32), Jonathan Bakley (16:35), Brad Pehr (16:40), and Henry Pehr (16:50). Tom, Will, and Jonathan all earned all-conference and Will, Brad, Jonathan, Michael Kolor (17:19), Brian Huitt (17:27), Max Blackington (17:33), and Ted MacCabe (17:37) set career PRs as well in the race.

The second race of the day was the girls championship race and the question going into the race was not if the GH girls would win, but how many of the 15 available all-conference spots would they grab. The girls cruised to their sixth straight conference title (and 11^th in 12 years) and placed a team record-tying 11 girls on the 15 person all-conference team, as 13 girls went sub-20:00. Elly Henes (18:36) led the Falcons and she was followed by Kelly Fitzgerald (18:45), Katie Tomasi (18:47), Theresa Enright (18:47), and Reilly Caldwell (18:55). Elly, Kelly, Katie, Theresa, Reilly, Sarah Taylor (19:02), Savannah Lips (19:14), Elisa Sargent (19:29), Sheridan Wood (19:30), Kayla Hall (19:44), and Emily Jordan (19:46) finished in the top 15 to earn all-conference spots. Samantha Kolor (19:47) and Sarah Bodmer (19:47) also went below 20:00.

The JV boys followed and around 115 Falcons competed in the race with many running PRs. Owen Dreikosen (17:43) led start to finish and won the individual title to help lead the Falcons to their 12^th straight JV conference title, although it was the closest of the 12 as the Falcons held off Apex 25-33. Bryce Korabik (18:00), Parker Manning (18:04), Connor Anglin (18:13), and John McGarrahan (18:23) rounded out the scoring 5. They were joined in the top 20 by Brendan Vasarhelyi (18:25), Grant Hoke (18:32), Cole Hagstrom (18:32), Stevie Winiecki (18:36), and Nick Brady (18:45).

The outcome was never in doubt that the Green Hope girls would win the JV girls race for the 12^th straight year as they once again finished with a perfect score of 15. Julia Zwierzynski (20:10), Anastasia Horvat (20:35), Taylor Buscemi (20:36), Morgan Adams (20:38), and Ally Wells (20:43) led the team to the perfect score, as the first ten finishers in the race were Falcons.

Thanks to everyone for a great year and best of luck to all of those runners who are now moving onto the Mideast Regional (hosted by GH on Oct. 26) in an effort to move on to the 4A state championship in Kernersville on November 2. The top 4 teams and top 5 individuals not on one of those 4 teams will move on from the regional to the state meet. Come out and support the Falcons runners (or better yet, volunteer to help at the meet) as the boys run at 10:00am on the 26^th and the girls run at 11:00am.