Green Hope Cross Country

On Saturday August 26th the Falcons woke up early from their hotel in Matthews and headed to McAlpine Park for the annual trip to run in the Providence Invitational.  This marks the beginning of the competitive Invitational season for the harriers.  The heat index was projected to reach 110 degrees and it was a very humid start to the morning as the boys championship race was scheduled to go off at 8:00am.  

The boys have generally had a lot of success in this early season race.  They were expected to finish in 6th place through the virtual meet simulator.  Dax Mahone went out hard from the start and was with the first main pack of runners after the mile mark.  He continued to fight throughout the race and finished with a career PR of 16:26.41.  Seamus was the 2nd GH runner and ran a strong second half of the race finishing in 17:13.  He was followed by Theo Zalc (17:25), Logan Blake (17:35), Tommy Dunn (17:36), Matt Dubrule (17:38, Ian House 17:42, and Miguel Carrasco Gomez 18:17).  In the end the boys bested the pre-race predictions by finishing in 4th place as a team.  

The 2nd race of the day was the girls’ varsity race and most of the girls were running in their first major invitational (including 6 freshmen).  This was to be a learning opportunity for most and to see how they stacked up against seasoned varsity runners.  The team result was not what some may have wished for, but the experience for the girls was a valuable one on a very hot morning.  

After one hour of races with no GH entries the JV boys made their way to the starting line for the 10:00am start.  Fortunately the sun stayed behind the clouds for the first half of the race, but it did come out for the 2nd half making the last part of the race very difficult for the boys.  This race is one of the races the Falcons look forward to every year as it is generally a huge field of runners and Green Hope normally finishes 1st or 2nd as a team.  In 2022 Marvin Ridge edge the boys so they hoped to get the trophy back this year.  Several Falcons went to the front pack right away and the boys would win the race with an extremely low 30pts (to 88pts for the 2nd place team).  As the temperatures heated up there were not many career PRs, but sophomore Gabriel Cardenas (PR of 18:01) finished as race runner-up (to a 12th grader and top 5 runner for Providence HS) after a very strong race.  He was joined by top 6 finishers Matheo Destouesse (3rd, 18:15), Rafa Dlott (4th, 18:16), and Berk Robottom (6th, 18:27).

The final race was the girls JV and only 5 Falcons were entered in the race.  It was clear from the start it was unlikely that there would be any PRs today as by 10:30am the sun was fully out and the extreme heat took its toll on all the runners, but the girls fought tough to persevere.  

The next big race for the Falcons is the Friday Night Lights XC Festival on September 8th.