Green Hope Cross Country

The Falcons left school early Friday to head to Kernersville for the last Saturday invitational of the year—the NC Runners Elite Invitational. The field of teams for the race was huge, as many teams could not run the previous weekend due to weather, so roughly 100 high school entered the race. Conditions for the day were cloudy, windy and dreary with intermittent rain and temps around 60 degrees.

The championship boys race started at 10:00am and 41 teams toed the line. The GH boys entered a team of 2 juniors and 4 seniors and finished in 5th place as a team, led once again by Henry Pehr. The times were not what the boys had hoped for, but were a little better than the previous race on the same course.

The championship girls raced their top 7 runners together for the first time this year and were ready for the day’s race as they went out hard and were in control of the race early. As the race progressed things got a bit closer, but the girls ultimately held off Leesville Road for the team championship. Elly Henes (2nd) and Morgan Adams (10th) both had top 10 finishes.

The featured races of the day are the 9-10 boys and girls races as this meet has been dubbed the “unofficial JV state championship.” The Falcons entered their top nine 9th and 10th grade boys in the race and competed against a deep, talented field of underclassmen. It was obvious from the start that the boys would win, and they did so in dominating fashion. In fact, if the meet had scored Green Hope’s top 5 vs. the top 5 runners from all 42 other teams in the race combined the GH boys still would have won. The team was led by Peyton Barish (2nd), Ian Delgado (3rd), Sean Petersen (6th), Alex Huml (7th), and Daniel Vo (8th).

The 9th-10th grade girls race started at 11:40. The girls have traditionally run very well in this race and they finished 4th this year out of 29 teams. Lauren McLaughlin (7th), Emma Benson, Morgan Peele, Cassandra Melax, and Elizabeth Surratt were the scoring runners.

The Open boys race included many top GH runners of all grades. Some teams treat the race as a workout and some run the runners just outside their top 7, but GH went after it with the runners entered and the guys finished 1st again out of 32 teams. Michael Kolor held off teammate Reed Blackman for the individual win and the two were joined by scoring runners Bryce Korabik (8th), Matthew Spivey (13th), and Ryan Tsolis (22nd).

The final race of the day was the Open girls race and some veteran GH runners took command early and led the team to another convincing win. Kayla Hall won the race in 19:47 and was followed by Emily Jordan (2nd), Brianne Vasarhelyi (3rd), and Martina Savage (5th).

The next big race of the year is the SWAC Championship on October 21st at Wake Med. Race schedule is as follows:

• 4:00 - Boys Championship (top 15 runners)
• 4:25 Girls Championship (top 15 runners)
• 4:50 Boys JV (all other runners)
• 5:20 Girls JV (all other runners)