Green Hope Cross Country

The boys cross country team entered 38 runners in the Adidas XC Challenge at Wake Med Park on Saturday September 21st. After the meet was cancelled in 2018 due to a hurricane the Falcons were ready to get another shot at the field in this highly competitive invitational.

     The first race of the day was the JV Red Race and the funfired when temps were a very comfortable 60 degrees. Junior Kyle Davis-Isaac went right to the front and pushed the pace the whole way. He has been suffering through a minor knee injury, but looked very strong in running a new personal best of 16:41 (previous best was 17:13) to finish as the race winner and helped the team to a 2nd place finish behind an exceptionally strong Weddington team. Kyle was followed by freshman Colin Whelehan who ran a huge PRof 17:17 (was 17:59), junior Jakub Kreuter (PR 17:27 down from 17:57),sophomore Jacob Kurak (PR 17:28 down from 18:13), freshman Gavin Hansen (PR17:38—was 17:57), freshman Luke Young (PR 17:55–was 18:28), and junior Gabe DaSilva (PR 18:00–was 18:24) rounding out the top 7. Other finishers:

—sophomore Tanner Harris (18:13)

—junior Erik Scheeres (PR 18:16-was 18:54)

—sophomore Davis Cuffe (PR 18:18–was 18:47)

—junior Gus Lund (PR 18:28-was 18:39)

—freshman Andrew Vo (PR 18:30-was 19:07)

—freshman Luke Bourke (PR 18:30-was 19:11)

—senior Jack Zhang (PR 18:35-was 18:37)

—junior Andrew Mathew (PR 18:37-was 18:40)

—freshman Liam Young (PR 18:40-was 19:35)

—junior Joey Caputo (PR 18:53-was 19:39)

—freshman Cyrus Jahromi (PR 18:57-was 19:58)

—junior Alex Klevans (PR 18:59-was 19:27)

—freshman Connor Blake (PR 19:07-was 19:29)

—junior Allan Michael Gilsenan (PR 19:08-was 19:49)

—sophomore Cooper Lessard (PR 19:18-was 20:14)

—junior Thien Do (PR 19:22-was 19:46)

—senior Myles Morgan (PR 19:23-was 19:41)

—freshman Anton Cedergrund (PR 19:32-was 20:53)

—senior Will Hager (PR 19:34-was 20:14),

—junior Ben Walsh (19:36)

—junior Moore Halfon (PR 20:06-was 20:19).

     The varsity boys racing in the 9:00 Championship Race were very excited to tie the line. The top 4 boys did not race at the Providence Invitational and Wake County Schools were not allowed to travel to Friday Night Lights due to Hurricane Dorian (although Thomas Vo finished 2nd in 15:50 running unattached) so this was the 1st invitational of the year with the team running a complete squad. A few minor injuries and sicknesses were nagging at the team, but they were more than ready to compete and see where they stood at the mid season point.

     Thomas Vo was determined to lead the Falcons to a high team finish and he went right out with the leaders.  While he was with the leaders coming up the final hill, he used his strong kick to leave them all behind.  Vo would finish as the Adidas Champion with a new school record time of 15:10.3 besting the 15:18 Peyton Barish ran in2017.  Vo’s time (a 29sec PR) was the 6^th fastest ever at the Adidas race. 

     Following Vo and helping the Falcons to a very good 5^th place team finish (2^nd of the NC 4A schools), was senior Liam McBride (37^th, PR of 16:14-was 16:37), senior Michael Taylor (38^th,PR of 16:17-was 16:23), junior Sanjay Kumar (PR of 16:44-was 17:16), and sophomore Ben Cale (PR of 16:51-was 16:54). 

Also racing well for the Falcons: 

--senior Seth Young (16:56)

--sophomore Zachary Taylor (PR of 17:11-was 17:43)

--senior Dylan Snyder (PR of 18:05-was 18:33)

--junior Nicholas Polsinelli (18:14)

Overall it was a very good day for Green Hope as 33 of 37 finishers set a new career 5K PR!  The next invitational for the girls and the boys will be September 28th at the Carolina Horse Park which will serve as the regional site on November 2nd. Most of the Mideast Regional teams will be there competing.