Green Hope Cross Country

The Falcons boarded the bus Friday afternoon for the drive west to Ivey Redmon Park and the Friday Night Lights Festival.  This is one of the top invitationals every year in North Carolina and a large, fun event.  The last week or so had been very difficult start to the school year for the Falcons though.  Last Monday school was released early due to the air conditioning going out in the school so runners trained on their own that day.  Last Thursday school was cancelled due to a tropical storm and this no practice.  Then there was the long holiday weekend with no school on Monday.  All practices after school were cancelled Tuesday through Thursday this week due to excessive heat so it was a mystery as to how well the runners would be able to race under the circumstances.  Regardless the team was excited for the chance to get out and compete on the state meet course.  

The 1st race for Green Hope of the evening was the boys 11/12 race at 6:40 in which 6 boys competed.  

As all of the races it was a huge field.  Sky Choy and Matheo Destouesse ran a very strong second half of the race as they were outside the top 20 at the mile mark and finished 3rd and 4th helping the team to a 4th place finish.  

The 2nd race for the Falcons was the boys 9/10 race at 7:06 with 14 boys entered.  Gabe Cardenas and Rafa Dlott went out hard and stuck with the leaders for the whole race finishing 3rd and 4th as they both broke 18:00 (17:43 and 17:51).  They were joined in the top 13 by sophomore Andrew Leary (18:37) and freshman Jared Crump (18:37) as the boys ran away with the team title (56-82pts for 2nd place).  

The only race for the GH girls went off at 7:34 with the top 10 girls competing in the Open Race.  It looked like it would be a 2 team race right from the start with Green Hope and North Iredell battling it out and the Falcons ultimately finished in a close 2nd place (66-61pts).  The girls were led by freshman Amruta Mayadeo (22:14), senior Sarah Smith (22:30), and senior Kaitlin Elliott (22:40).  

After a nearly 2 hour break in the action for the Falcons the final race of the night was the Boys Championship Race at 9:40pm.  The boys were hoping for a top 7 or 8 finish (they brought home the title in 2022), but it was not meant to be on this day as overall they were not on their “A” game.  Dax Mahone paced the Falcons with a very good time of 16:28 and was followed by Seamus O’Driscoll (16:59) and Matt Dubrule (17:37).  

The team has another big invitational next weekend as they are back at Wake Med Soccer Park for the Adidas Invitational.