Green Hope Cross Country

A huge group of Green Hope runners hit the trails on Saturday October 5^th at 2 different local invitationals.  The top 7 girls and boys were in the Great American Cross Country Festival at WakeMed and almost 50 more runners ran at the Dorothea Dix Invitational in Raleigh.  This was the 1^st time Green Hope has entered this relatively new race.

The1^st race of the day was the 8:00 Boys Championship at D. Dix Park.  The boys knew they would be in the mix for the championship as the Falcons 2^nd 7 runners were matched up against other team’s top 7.  It was a little bit of an unknown as to how the race would play out as the course was an unknown.  Right away, though, it was clear the Falcons would have a chance for the team title and they left no doubt.  Freshmen Colin Whelehan (2^nd,17:15) and Gavin Hansen (3^rd, 17:27) led the team to a dominating win with only 38 team pts.  Jacob Kurak(8^th, 17:45), Jakub Kreuter (9^th, 17:54), and Zach Taylor(16^th, 18:07) rounded out the scoring. 

The2^nd race was the Girls Red Race at Great American.  Temps were around 60 degrees and conditions perfect and the girls were ready to run. Kelsey Vogel hoped to be in the mix for the individual championship and she went out near the front, but fell in the congestion of the other runners in the first loop in the woods.  She recovered well, though, and quickly got back into the top 10.  Kelsey slowly worked her way up and managed a 4^th place finish, running a very impressive time of 19:09.  The rest of the girl’s team ran very well also and several set career PRs.  Natasha Abramowicz (20:51), Reagan McDaniel (21:08), Melody Lee (21:30), Katie Foppiano(21:34), Grace Boughton (21:56), and Zoey Davila (22:06) rounded out the top7. 

The3^rd race of the day was the Girl’s Championship at Dorothea Dix at 8:30.  The girls were also running their 2^nd 7 runners in this race, but the girls were on a mission to represent the team well.  Delaney Armstrong and Alice Barry went right to the top pack early on.  The girls ended up finishing 3^rd and were led by Delaney Armstrong (8^th, 21:40), Alice Barry (10^th,21:44), Arshia Haq (14^th, 22:04), Claire de Larminat (20^th,22:47), and Akhila Krothapalli (23^rd, 23:00). 

The4^th race of the day was the Boys Developmental at Dorothea Dix park at 9:00am.  The Green Hope Boys dominated this race as well scoring only 20pts (2^nd place had 61).  The boys finished 2-3-4-5-6 for their team score.  Tanner Harris (18:13), Erik Scheeres (18:33), Andrew Vo (18:40), Alex klevans (18:43), and Davis Cuffe(18:44) were the scoring runners. 

The5^th race of the day was the Girls Developmental at Dorothea Dix at9:30.  It was not a large race, but the girls hoped to bring home the team title and they did just that with a low score of 26pts.  Anna Tinglestad took home the individual title with a time of 22:13 and Kaela Brandon (3^rd),Shea Sullivan (22:57), Bethany Blackman (23:09), and Anastasia Jeffcoat (24:11)were the other scoring runners. 

At10:00 the Boys JV Race went off at Dorothea Dix.  The Boys hoped to make it a sweep of the day’s races and they did not disappoint as they swept places 1-13 in the race and had a perfect score of 15pts.  Liam Young took home the individual honor in 18:19. 

The Girls JV Race began at 10:30 at Dorothea Dix. The girls were excited to get their race underway after waiting through the previous 5 races of the morning.  The girls again dominated the race and finished with another perfect score of 15pts.  Lauren Sims was the individual winner (24:01). 

The last race of the day and the most anticipated was the Boys top 7 running in the Great American Race of Champions.  The race included one of the most impressive field of teams ever at Wake Med.  Great Oak came all the way from California and Loudon Valley came down from Virginia as well as many other traditional regional powers such as Bishop Hendrickon (RI), LaSalle Academy (RI), The Bolles School (FL), Mariette (GA), Belen Jesuit, Oakton, and many strong North Carolina teams.  The boys were hoping to continue to cut their times down and see where they stood against many of the top teams in the southeastern U.S.  It was clear from the start that it would be a very fast race and Thomas Vo went to the back of the lead pack.  He ended up running very close to his career PR and turned in the 2^nd fastest performance ever for a Green Hope runner as he finished in 15:16.  He was followed by Liam McBride (16:06),Michael Taylor (16:16), Kyle Davis-Isaac (16:24), Ben Cale (16:35), Sanjay Kumar (16:41), and Seth Young (16:55). 5 of the 7 runners set their career PR. As a team the Falcons finished 15th out of 37 teams and were the lowest scoring team from North Carolina--a very impressive performance in a hugh invitational.  

The next invitational is NC Runners at Ivey Redmon Park in Kernersville on October 12^th.