Green Hope Cross Country

The championship meet portion of the season began with a bang on October 21st with the SWAC Conference Championship. This is the final race of the year for all of those runners outside the top 7, and it is always an exciting day. Roughly 230 Green Hope runners would toe the line on this day. The conference meet always offers excitement as every runner in the conference races all out, and teams get to see the top runners from one of the best conferences in the state compete.

The first race of the afternoon may have been the most anticipated. The boys championship race (top 15 runners for each team) went off at 4:00 PM. After running off a string of 9-straight conference titles through 2010, the boys wanted to end their current four-year drought and get back to the top of the conference. The guys had a very off day and fell to Apex by 16 pts to finish 2nd in the conference. Scoring for the boys were Peyton Barish (16:16), Nick Veilleux (16:25), Daniel Vo (16:33), Brian Huitt (16:37), and Ian Delgado (16:46). All five boys earned all-conference honors.

The second race of the day was the girls championship race, and the GH girls hoped to bring home their 8th straight conference title. From the start it was apparent that it would be another good day for the girls as they earned their 13th title in the past 14 years. Elly Henes (18:05) ran away with her 2nd conference MVP award, leading the girls to the win with a very low 22 points for a team score. Also scoring for the Falcons were Morgan Adams (18:46), Sarah Taylor (19:02), Alessandra Rodriguez (19:05), and Katie Tomasi (19:10). Joining those five on the all-conference squad were Shannon Kelly (19:20), Samantha Kolor (19:24), Emily Jordan (19:25), and Kayla Hall (19:28).

The boys JV race was the third race of the day. After a year in which the depth of the boy’s program dominated the state, the race went as expected as the boys would cruise to their 14th consecutive JV team title with a perfect score of 15. Freshmen Alex Huml and Reed Blackman battled each other the whole way for the individual title with Alex taking 1st (16:55) and breaking 17:00 in the process. Reed (17:09) took 2nd and was followed by Kenny Derek (17:23), Luke Bakley (17:32), and Andy Dawson (17:36).

The final race of the day was the girls JV race. The girls finished the day with another win for the Falcons by placing 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 to score a very low score of 20 points. Cassandra Melax (21:19) finished 2nd to help the Falcons girls JV team earn their 14th consecutive JV team title. She was followed by Lindsey Eastwood (21:26), Elizabeth Surratt (21:34), Jordyn Parks (21:42), and Alex O’Sullivan (21:50).

Next up for the Falcons is the Mideast Regional Meet at Wake Med on October 31st. The boys race at 10:00 AM and the girls at 11:00 AM. The top 4 teams and the top 7 individuals not on one of those 4 teams will advance to the state meet on November 7th in Kernersville.