Green Hope Cross Country

For the first time in school history, the Green Hope Falcons cross country teams traveled to McAlpine Park in Charlotte to run in the Hare and Hounds Invitational. The meet has grown quite a bit over the years to include almost 100 teams. It provides the runners a chance to run on the fast McAlpine course in a midseason race and for many to compare their times to the Providence Invitational. The Falcons hoped for cool temperatures, but while the early races were run in perfect temps, the temperature rose rapidly as the morning progressed.

The first race of the day was the boys championship race. Once again, the Falcons held out 6 of their top 7 runners. This allows many runners to have to step up in the varsity race, but also in other races as there is a trickle-down effect to races 2 and 3 for the boys for the day. Pre-meet predictions had the Falcons finishing second behind Millbrook and, while the boys hoped to pull off the win, the forecast held true to form and Millbrook edged the boys 116-132 as the GH finished 2nd out of 32 teams. Sophomore Thomas Vo made a late charge to edge teammate Ares Epps (16:21-16:22) and they were followed in the team scoring by Spencer Cowley, Michael Biddle, and Michael Taylor.

The championship girls followed the boys. Like the boys, the girls were also predicted to finish second. A very strong Cuthbertson team did manage to run away with the victory, with the GH girls finishing in a strong secnd. The Falcons took a bit of a cautious approach to the start of the race, but Kelsey Vogel came on strong and finished just off her PR with a time of 18:51 and 9th place finish overall. She was followed by Zoey Davila (19:31), Tess Davila (19:44), Catherine Holbrook (19:58), and Sophia Veilleux (20:43).

The third race of the day was the boys invitational. The Falcons went up against the top 7 from most of the other teams entered in the race and battled to the end. They would finish 4th out of 47 teams averaging 17:50 a runner. Scoring runners for the Falcons were Liam McBride (17:35), Andy Dawson (17:41), Yash Amin (with a huge PR of 17:45), Srikar Chedalavada (17:54), and sophomore Seth Young (18:11).

The invitational girls team also raced against many top 7 squads and still managed to dominate the race as the girls finished first out of 34 teams. The girls were led by huge PRs from Natasha Abramowicz (4th, 20:21) and Bailey Fowler (5th, 20:29). Freshman Megan Benson ran a strong race (20:56) as did Morgan Peele (21:02) and Lauren McLaughlin (21:49).

The last boys race of the day was the open race. The Falcons 3rd group of the day (and 4th group of 7 or so) matched up with other team’s 2nd 7 runners and had a great showing. Many runners ran PRs as the boys finished 3rd out of 49 teams. Hiromu Koyama ran a very strong 2nd half of the race to set a new career PR of 18:27. Freshman Sanjay Kumar had a very strong showing with a new personal best 18:37. They were followed by Arman Jahromi (PR of 18:44), Alex Tomasi, and Brendan Adkins (PR of 19:12). Overall 7 of the boys in the race set career PRs.

The final high school race of the day was the girls open race and the temperatures had climbed to the low 80s by race time. The girls were ready, though, and several girls ran season or career bests as the team finished 2nd out of 31 schools. Freshman Rebecca Robinson (22:05) led the Falcons and was followed by sophomore Akhila Krothapalli (22:42), senior Lindsey Eastwood (22:47), sophomore Claire Miller (22:58), and freshman Alanna Rodriguez (23:18).

The Falcons have next weekend off from invitationals and then have a big Saturday on October 7. GH will send runners to race at the Pirate Invitational in Greenville, and have others running in the Great American Cross Country Festival in Cary at WakeMed Soccer Park.