Green Hope Cross Country

The Falcons competed in the SWAC Championship races on Wednesday, October 15, at Wake Med Soccer Park. The day marked the end of the cross country season for most of the team members. The races took place on a very muddy course, but it was a great day of racing and many runners set a new PR (personal record).

The first race of the day was the boys championship. Apex was again the clear favorite going into the race and they held serve, winning the conference championship for the second year in a row. The Green Hope boys expected a battle for 2nd place, but took the runner-up spot in convincing style. Henry Pehr (16:19) fought his way to the individual runner-up spot and was joined on the all-conference team by Michael Kolor (16:47), Nick Veilleux (16:50), and Michael Dudash (16:59) with Brian Huitt (17:06) completing the scoring and just missing out on all-conference.

The girls varsity was the next race and the Falcons were overwhelming favorites once again. The girls would cruise to their 7th straight conference title and 12th in 13 years with a very low team score of 22 points. Elly Henes (18:19) won the race as well as the conference MVP award. Katie Tomasi (18:49), Morgan Adams (18:57), Kelly Fitzgerald (19:00), Theresa Enright (19:12), Elisa Sargent (19:18), Kayla Hall (19:31), Sheridan Wood (19:33), Emily Jordan (19:38), and Martina Savage (20:01) earned all-conference spots as well. In fact, 12 of the first 17 finishers in the race were Green Hope girls.

A very young Green Hope junior varsity squad was looking to finish off an impressive season with another win and the outcome was never in doubt. With seven Falcons in the lead pack at the halfway point, the question was which runner would be first in the chute. Freshman Finn McBride (18:00) would end up earning the title. The four other runners to round out the team scoring were Sam Gallant (18:04), Patrick Stylski (18:05), Daniel Vo (18:05), and Sean Petersen (18:14). This marked the 13th straight year the Falcons JV squad ran to the boys title.

The final race of the day was the junior varsity girls race. Freshman Lauren McLaughlin led most of the race and cruised to the individual title, helping the girls earn the team title. The wins gave the Falcons three team championships and three individual championships in the day’s four races and marked the 13th straight year the JV girls have won the team award. She was joined by scorers Julia Zwierzynski (21:27), Lindsey Eastwood (21:45), Shannon Kelly (21:46), and Elizabeth Surratt (21:50).

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 October 25) in an effort to move on to the 4A state championship in Kernersville on November 1. The top four teams and top five individuals not on one of those four teams will move on from the regional to the state meet. Come out and support the Falcon runners (or better yet, volunteer to help at the meet!) as the boys run at 10:00 AM on the 25th and the girls run at 11:00 AM.