Green Hope Cross Country

The Falcons hit the road Friday October 11^th for the last invitational meet of the year—the NC Runners Elite Invitational at Ivey Redmon Park.  After running the course and spending the night in a hotel, the team woke up early Saturday, dida quick shake out run, ate breakfast and headed off to the race. 

The first race of the day was the Championship Boys race and it was a large and talented field of teams in the race.  The Falcons did not expect to be in the team contention for this one as number one runner Thomas Vo was on an official visit to West Point and 2 of the top 7 runners were feeling under the weather, butthe boys planned to go out and fight and see where they were on the course that is the site of the state championship meet on November 9^th.  Michael Taylor and Liam McBride went out hard and were in the second pack of runners for much of the race.  Kyle Davis-Isaac fought his way to those two as the race progressed and Seth Young and Sanjay Kumar maintained spots not too far behind.  Liam finished with a time of 16:28, Michael 16:31, and Kyle was only 3 seconds back in 16:34.  Seth ran one of his better races of the year(16:54) and was followed by Sanjay (16:57), Ben Cale (17:12), and freshman Colin Whelehan (17:35).  The boys managed to pull off an impressive 5^th place (out of 35 teams) showing. 

The second race of the day was the Championship Girls Race.  The girls have been running better as of late, but there is still some mystery as to who will comprise the top 7 down the stretch.  One again Kelsey Vogel went to the rear of the lead pack.  She looked very strong throughout and finished in 7^th place (19:23).  The rest of the team could never really get things going, but ran respectable times to finish right in the middle of the 24team race. 

The third race of the day is considered the unofficial Boys JV state championship.  Only 9^th and 10^th graders are allowed to enter this race and it gives a good indicator or which programs are set up well for the future.  While three of Green Hope’s top younger runners ran in the Championship race the Falcons still expected to do well and they did not disappoint.  The boys easily bested the field of 35 teams (85pts to 128 for 2^nd place Mt.Tabor).  Freshman Gavin Hansen (5^th,17:31), sophomore Jacob Kurak (7^th, 17:39), freshman Luke Young(18:01), sophomore Tanner Harris (18:37), and freshman Liam Young (18:46) led the way for the boys. 

The fourth race was the Girls JV Championship.  The Falcons have a group of younger runners relatively new to competitive running, but they have been improving throughout the year and expected to place well going in—again, without two of the team’stop younger runners who were racing “up” in the Championship Race.  The girls started off slow, but picked it upas the race went along and made quite a move as a team.  In the end the team finished 4^th of 16 teams and a slim 3pts out of 2^nd place.  Freshman Grace Boughton ran very well and finished 17^th (21:56) leading the girls.  Sophomores Katie Foppiano, Kaela Brandon and Anna Tinglestad and freshman Claire de Larminat rounded out the scoring. 

This concludes the invitational season for the Falcons.  Next up is the JV Conference Championship at 5:00pm on Wednesday October 16^th.