Green Hope Cross Country

The 1^st invitational of the 2022 season was anew one called the Early Bird Challenge. This was a very low-key invitational which just provided runners an opportunity for their first 5K race of the year.  Most of the top 7 runners for the Falcons sat this one out, but it gave many runners a chance to see where they were this early in the season. 

The 1^st race was the boy’s race.  Teams were allowed to enter as many boys as they wanted and more than 30 GH runners were at the line at the gun.  While there was no rain in the forecast, a steady rain fell on Wake Med before and throughout the race.  With the top 6 boy’s doing a long run today instead of racing, the boys were determined to make up for the missing scorers.  While the long uphill was muddy and the track pretty soft in places, many of the boys put up huge PRs and several first year runners had great 5K debuts.  After missing 2021 due to injury, senior Anton Cedergrund led the way with a time of 17:27 and was followed by Seamus O’Driscoll (career PR 17:37), Matt Dubrule (career PR 17:46), Tommy Dunn (career PR 17:59), Theo Zalc (career PR 18:22), and senior Nikhil Shah (career PR 18:25). Even without their top 6 runners the boys finished in 3^rd place out of the 11 teams in the race. 

The 2^nd and final race was the girl’s race (this was a very short invitational!) with 14 Falcons entered.  The rain had stopped by the time the girls race began, but the temps remained cool (around 71) for August.  The girls were excited to get in their first 5K of the year.  Senior Grace Boughton was the first to cross the line (21:55) with fellow senior Kayla Gordon (22:20) not far behind. 

The 1^st high-level invitational is next weekend’s Providence Invitational at McAlpine Park in Charlotte.