Green Hope Cross Country

Hurricane Matthew disrupted area cross country teams’ plans for the weekend of October 7-8, 2016. The Falcons cancelled their hotel reservations for Friday night, but still ventured out to Kernersville early Saturday morning to race in the NC Runner’s Elite Invitational on the state meet course at Ivey Redmon Park. Less than half of the teams entered made the trip as the conditions were very, very difficult, but it would prove to be another great day for the Falcons.

The rain was coming down hard when the team boarded the bus at 6:45am, and the weather never let up. The first race for the runners was the championship boys race at 10:00 am. The boys were forced to stand in the cold, windy conditions at the line an extra 10 minutes as the start of the race was delayed. When the gun finally went off, the boys raced comfortably just behind the lead pack, holding back a bit for the first 2 miles and then racing hard. The guys came on very strong late in the race and easily brought home the team title (first out of 16 schools). They were once again led by Peyton Barish (6th place, 16:53), Finn McBride (16:58), Ian Delgado (17:16), Nick Veilleux (17:17), and Daniel Vo (17:29). Conditions were very tough for the race, but they would only get worse.

The varsity girls went out fairly conservatively, too, as several of them raced hard Wednesday. Similar to the boys, a pack of 6 ran together for half the race or so. After the halfway point of the race, though, they stepped up and pushed the pace. The girls easily brought home the title (first out of 10 schools) and the top five scorers were once again Alessandra Rodriguez (19:59), Samantha Kolor (20:03), Kelsey Vogel (20:27), Sarah Taylor (20:34), and Catherine Holbrook (20:41).

The main races of the day are the freshmen/sophomore races as they are nicknamed the “Unofficial JV State Championship.” Green Hope has historically done very well in these races that include only freshmen and sophomores, and this year would prove to be no different. The boys team has proven to be one of the deepest teams in the state’s history in terms of high quality runners and it was obvious from the start they would run away with the race, but the conditions were already far worse than an hour earlier in the day and the course conditions continued to deteriorate. Reed Blackman (17:19) won the race and was followed by Spencer Cowley (17:43), Alex Huml (17:44), Thomas Vo (18:00), and Liam McBride (18:18) leading the team to an easy victory (first out of 16 teams). The boys brought home the Unofficial JV Championship for the second straight year with a score of 29 points (2nd place Cary had 62).

The girls were two years removed from winning this race, but went for it right from the start. Three GH girls went right to the front pack and two more were just outside the top 20 halfway through the race. Morgan Peele (21:23) made a strong move late in the race to lead the girls and Bailey Fowler (21:47) was not far behind. Sophia Veilleux (21:53) made a huge move the last mile and was followed by Meg Penaganti (23:15) and Pragati Fisher (23:44) who rounded out the scoring. The girls held off local rivals Panther Creek (54-71) and Apex to bring home the title (first out of 11 schools)—the fourth team championship of the day in four races for the Falcons!

By the time the last race of the day started, the wind was blowing the heavy rain in horizontal sheets and the temperature had dropped. Long stretches of the course were under 6 inches of water. About an hour before the Open races started the race director announced that the boys and girls open races would be combined. Most of the GH girls had moved up into an earlier race due to the weather and others had been told it might be best to not make the trip as the conditions were very, very rough. So when the final race of the day went out at 12:30 or so, 7 boys and 1 girl from GH went out into the hurricane and raced hard right from the start. Ryan Kemper (18:02) cruised to the victory. While there was not a team trophy given out for the race, the boys team easily won the race—for the 5th title of the day. Ryan was followed by Matthew Kehn (18:15) and Luke Bakley (18:55).

Overall, it was a very impressive day for the Falcons. The race marked the end of the invitational season for the team. For the season, the boys team won the Providence Invitational, the Knight’s Crossing Invitational, the Pirate Invitational, the NC Runners 9-10 Championship, the NC Runners Invitational and finished 4th (the top NC team) in the Race of Champions at the Great American Invitational. The girls team finished 2nd at Providence, 2nd at Greensboro, 2nd at the Pirate Invitational (with a 9-10 team), first at Friday Night Lights, 1st in the NC Runners 9-10 Championship, and 1st at the NC Runners Invitational.

Next up is the SWAC Conference Championship at WakeMed Park on Wednesday, October 19th. The SWAC schedule is:

• Boys Varsity: 4:00 PM
• Girls Varsity: 4:25 PM
• Boys JV: 4:50 PM
• Girls JV: 5:20 PM