Green Hope Cross Country

On Saturday November 5th the boys headed to Kernersville for the 3rd time this season to race in the state championship at Ivey Redmon Park.  It was a very mild morning for early November.  The guys were excited at the opportunity as they knew they were one of the favorites to bring home the title.  Most people figured it would be a 3-team race between Mt. Tabor, Broughton and Green Hope with Marvin Ridge and Charlotte Catholic possibly in the mix.  Gavin Hansen went out with the leaders right from the start, but it was difficult to tell how the team was doing as the race was very congested and no team had obvious control early on.  There was also a mess-up (yet again—the 3rd time in 3 races at Ivey Redmon this year for GH) as the runners were not led the correct way early in the race.  Runners are supposed to do a big loop around the field, another big loop, and finish with a short loop, but instead they went big loop and then short loop so as the runners hit the field for the final time they were forced to do a big loop instead of the normal small loop to finish.  That would not have made much of a difference, though, as the Falcons were ready to fight on this day.  

Gavin went out strong and stayed that way the whole race, earning all-state by placing 3rd (15:40).  As has normally been the case, he was followed by senior Luke Young (21st, 16:21), senior Liam Young (25th, 16:22), and senior Andrew Vo (44th, 16:40).  Junior Sebastian Percival-Shim stepped up to round out the scoring (62nd, 16:57).  All year long the top 4 runners for the Falcons were seniors and they led the team to its 3rd state title and 1st since 2017.  It was quite a way for Gavin, Luke, Liam, and Andrew to end their GHXC careers!  

While this is the last official Green Hope race of the 2022 season, 15 or so team members will continue training and race in the Nike Southeast Regional at Wake Med on Saturday November 26th.  Overall it was a very successful year as the boys won Friday Night Lights, won the NC Runners Invitational, finished 2nd at the Providence Invitational, won the SWAC Conference Championship, won the Mideast Regional, and won the state meet.