News: Hagan Stone Invitational
2021
To kickoff the October slate of racing, the Falcons hit the road for Hagan Stone Park in Pleasant Garden, just south of Greensboro. It has been several years since the team ran in the Hagan Stone Invitational, but it gave the harriers a chance to race on a new course for most in a lower key invitational.
The day of racing at Hagan Stone is always a bit hectic as the start of the race is a bit of a hike from the finish area. Spectators and coaches are able to see the first ¾ of a mile or so before the runners head into the woods and then fans must hurry to the finish area to see the last few hundred meters of therace.
The 1st high school race of the day was the boys championship race. The Falcons were without 2 of the top 7 runners, but still appeared to be the favorites heading into the event. Jacob Kurak and the his teammates went out hard and right to the front pack. Kurak fell a little off the leader as the race progressed, but he finished as the race runner-up in an outstanding time of 16:18. Luke Young, Ben Cale and Zach Taylor finished within 2 seconds of each other (16:42, 16:42, and 16:44) in spots 5-7. Liam Young (17:02) rounded out the scoring in 14th place as the boys cruised to an easy team victory.
The next race of the day was the girls championship. The girls have made strides throughout the year, but would be without 1 of their top runners as several Falcons were scheduled to take the SAT on this day. The girls still hoped to be one of the top three teams in the race and the team’s 1st 3 runners made an aggressive push early, while runners 4-6 went out more conservatively and then moved up as the race went on. It was clear early that Charlotte Country Day would win the team race as they were the clear favorites,but it would be a battle with Northwest Guilford for the runner-up trophy. When the dust settled, 3 girls set new career PRs (Kaela Brandon 20:00, Katie Foppiano 20:01, and Alice Emel 21:07) and along with Alicia Craia (20:39), Lisa Zhao (21:58) and Shea Sullivan (22:28) the girls edged NW Guilford to earn the 2nd place trophy.
The 3rd and 4th races of the day were the developmental races which would pit some teams’ top 7 runners against other teams' next 7. The Falcons would see how their 2nd 7 would stack up. In the boy’s race Davis Cuffe battled for the top spot all race and finished as the runner-up in a time of 17:25. Quinn Morgan (17:51), Luke Bourke (18:25), Cyrus Jahromi (18:31), and Saahil Patel (18:50) combined for a very low team score of 43 points to lead the boys to the 2nd team victory of the day. The girls developmental team followed and finished a very respectable 4th in the team competition. Lily Slaughter (22:50), Kayla Gordon (23:18),and Lauren Sims (23:24) led the girls.
The final race of the day was a combined boys and girls JV race at 12:40. While there was no official team competition, the runners were excited to see how they would fare. Much like the previous 2 boys races, Tanner Harris went out hard going for the win. He made a strong effort, but finished as the runner-up in the race (18:53). As a group the runners ran hard and did a great job competing. In fact 8 freshmen and sophomore boys set career PRs in the last race of the day!
Well-done Falcons!