Green Hope Cross Country

The Mideast Regional to determine which teams would advance to the 4A state finals was held at Wake Med on Saturday October 29th.  Based on teams racing that day (25% of teams racing advance to the state championship), 6 boy’s teams and 5 girl’s teams would be moving on.  It was a very busy day at Wake Med Park as for the 1st time there were 5 regionals being held on the same day—including all 4 Mideast classifications (1A-4A) and the 4A East Regional.  

The 1st race for the 4A Mideast was the boy’s race at 1:00.  The Green Hope boys were one of the pre-race favorites (along with Chapel Hill), but a couple of the runners had been under the weather this week as several illnesses have been going around the community.  The boys hoped to take home the team title, but the key for them would be to qualify for the state meet and get fully healthy and ready to go by November 5th.  Gavin Hansen went out with a runner from Cary and one from Pinecrest to form a lead pack of 3 as they came up the hill the first time.  Several other runners were in a good position and it looked like the team would fare well.  As the boys came up the hill the 2nd time spectators knew that the Falcons would take home the Regional Championship.  Gavin outkicked the Cary runner to finish as the regional runner-up with a new PR of 15:25, while Luke Young (6th, 15:48) and Liam Young (9th, 15:54) also earned all-region.  Andrew Vo finished in 13th with a new career PR of 16:08 and Sebastian Percival-Shim rounded out the scoring in 21st with a new PR of 16:40.  The boys finished with 51pts, 31 ahead of 2nd-place Chapel Hill.  

The girls race was immediately after the boys.  The girls were not really in the mix for a team spot in the state meet, but they were hoping to run season PRs and earn a top 10 finish.  The girls were a bit nervous at the line, but went out fast and went for it.  While there were no career PRs in the top 7 the girls managed to finish in a respectable 10th place as a team.  Pacing the Falcons was senior Alice Emel (20:27), sophomore Alicia Craia (20:45), senior Grace Boughton (21:06), senior Kayla Gordon (21:38), and senior Shea Sullivan (22:02).  

Next up for the boys is the 4A State Meet at Ivey Redmon Park in Kernersville Saturday November 5th at 9:40am.