Green Hope Cross Country

Saturday October 30^th was the date of the Mideast Regional race at Wake Med Soccer Park.  This race determines which teams and individuals get to advance to next weekend’s state championship.  The amount of advancing teams is dependent on how many teams have 5 runners at the start line and 25% of those teams move on.  This would mean that 5 boys and girls teams would race next weekend.  The temperatures had finally dropped for really the first time this fall so it felt like true cross country weather.  After a few days of rain the temps were in the mid-50’s for the event. 

The boys race was the 1^st of the two 4A races and went off at 11:00am.  The boys were one of the pre-race favorites, but would be without 1 of their top 3 runners and 2 others racing were under the weather. The key for the boys would be to just qualify for the state meet and hopefully get everyone healthy in the week ahead.  The boys really battled though.  Gavin Hansen went out hard from the gun and stayed with the top group the whole race. He finished in a blistering 15:56 (career PR) for a 4^th place finish.  A couple of the runners were just a little off, but several others set career PRs and the team pulled through with a regional runner-up trophy. In addition to Gavin the other boys racing were Liam Young (16:27 PR), Ben Cale (16:29), Luke Young (16:30), Davis Cuffe (16:40 PR), Zach Taylor (16:44), and Dax Mahone (17:01 PR). 

The girls were dealing with even more serious issues as 2of their top 4 runners were out with injuries so 2 alternates were asked to step in.  That appeared pre-race to make it an uphill battle to say the least for qualifying as a team.  It was clear Chapel Hill, East Chapel Hill,and Panther Creek would make it so it was a question of which teams could earn the final 2 spots.  The girls crushed it and did everything they could to make up for the loss of the other two runners.  In the end they finished in avery close 6^th place, just missing qualifying by one spot.  The girls truly laid it on the line and almost every runner set a new career PR. Katie Foppiano (19:53 PR), Grace Boughton (20:24), Shea Sullivan (20:36 PR), Alice Emel (20:47 PR), Lisa Zhao (21:00 PR), Kayla Gordon (22:04 PR), and Lily Slaughter (22:09 PR) were the runners making up the regional squad.