Green Hope Cross Country

The Green Hope Falcons split their squad on Saturday, September 24, as 38 runners headed to Hagan Stone Park in Greensboro and 36 raced at Lake Kristi just east of Greenville. Green Hope's top 7 boys did not race as they prepared for the Great American Race on October 1st. The top 7 girls and 31 other boys and girls ran in Greensboro, while 9th and 10th graders outside of the top 7 raced at the Pirate Invitational at Lake Kristi with some of their senior captains.

Pirate Invitational:
The Falcons sent a talented group of underclassmen and seven senior captains to race in the Pirate Invitational against the top runners from about 20 high schools. The course at Lake Kristi is run on a mostly grass surface on and around a private golf course. After a week of heavy rain, the course ran a little slow. When the Falcons arrived Saturday morning, fog kept it relatively cool until about 20 minutes before the boys’ race. When the sun broke through the temperatures rose quickly and the course did not provide much relief from the sun. The boys got out well, though, and were determined to bring home the team title. Spencer Cowley and Alex Huml went out with the leaders and freshman Thomas Vo kept them in sight as he was determined to stay on their heels as long as he could. When the runners finally crossed the finish line, Falcons placed 3rd, 4th, 5th, 9th, and 17th to score an extremely low team score of 38 points to easily defeat second-place Middle Creek 38-100. Leading the way for the boys were Spencer Cowley (17:10), Alex Huml (17:12), Thomas Vo (17:13), Michael Taylor (17:38), and Carter Pehr (18:07).

The girls race began at about 11:00 as the temps rose even higher. It was clear early on it would be a three-team race between West Carteret, Green Hope, and Middle Creek and the team race would eventually end in that order. Emma Benson (20:56) and Meg Penaganti (21:05) went out hard with the front pack and finished 6th and 8th with big season PRs. They were followed by 9th graders Sophia Veilleux (22:03) and Pragati Fisher (22:17) and senior Maddie Lips (22:39). Many of the girls in the race ran career PRs even with the hot conditions. The girls finished 2nd as a team ahead of conference rival Middle Creek. Overall, it was a very successful trip for the team as they head into the final month of the season.

Greensboro Invitational:
The top seven varsity girls tested themselves against Chapel Hill (3A), one of the best teams in the southeast, on Saturday at Hagan Stone Park. Samantha Kolor set a new PR of 19:05 in running to a 3rd place finish and she was followed by Alessandra Rodriguez (19:13) in 4th place and Sarah Taylor (19:22) in 6th place. Chapel Hill managed to edge the Falcons, 41-37, in a back-and-forth race. The Falcon girls raced well in the championship race and also placed 3rd in the developmental race. Emily Jordan cruised to the individual title in that race with a time of 20:13 to lead the girls. She was followed by Lauren McLaughlin (21:39) and Elizabeth Surratt (21:58). There were several PRs in the boys championship, boys developmental, and girls JV races as well. The most notable boys times of the day were run by Sean Petersen (16:45) and Ryan Kemper (16:48).

The next invitational race is the Great American Race of Champions on October 1st for the top 7 guys. That will be followed by more than 50 runners participating in the NC Runners Invitational on October 8th at Ivey Redmon Park in Kernersville.