Green Hope Cross Country

After a couple weeks of very hot weather area XC teams were excited for the cooler temps (54 at race time for the boys JV) at Wake Med Soccer Park on September 16th for the Adidas Invitational.  This race always brings in a strong field of teams and can produce fast times—especially in the first few races of the morning.  

Kicking things off at 8:00am was the JV Boys Race.  The Falcons had 27 runners entered and hoped for some great times and a top 3 team performance.  By the 2K split it was clear the boys were running well and the team was in 4th overall (out of 30 schools).  As would be the theme of the day, though, Green Hope ran a very strong 2nd half of the race.  Sophomore Ian House led much of the way and finished in 3rd place with a big PR of 17:09.  Junior Sky Choy came on strong over the last mile to finish in 6th (PR of 17:28) and was followed by sophomore Miguel Carrasco Gomez (11th 17:43), sophomore Andrew Leary (24th, 17:58), and junior Matheo Destouesse (29th 17:58) to round out the scoring as the boys finished in the runner-up spot as a team (behind Blacksburg, VA).  

The JV girls race was next at 8:30am with 12 girls running.  For many of the JV and varsity girls it was their 1st high level race as the field was loaded with strong runners.  Junior Claire Driscoll was the top GH runner from start to finish and ran a new PR of 24:13.  While the girls did not have any top 100 finishers many of them ran their best ever 5K times as freshman Tanveer Sharma (24:19) and senior Delaney Cowen (24:21) finished as the 2nd and 3rd GH runners with new PRs.  

The Championship Boys Race followed at 9:00am.  The boys were anxious to put the Friday Night Lights Race behind them as that performance did not meet their expectations.  Today would not be as much about the team finish, but hopefully they would each be able to see improved times and a decreased pack time.  Figuring out the Championship Race at Adidas as it unfolds can be very difficult as there are so many strong teams from all over the south who attend the event.  The boys would finish in 19th place as a team (of 32), but 9 of the teams in front of them were out-of-state powers.  While it was not the highest team performance, the boys took a step forward as a group with many PRs and they performed well against other conference and regional teams.  Dax Mahone stood out for the Falcons as he broke 16min for the 1st time (15:51) and junior Seamus O’Driscoll (16:31), sophomore Gabe Cardenas (16:55), senior Sebastian Percival-Shim (16:57), senior Theo Zalc (17:04), senior Matt Dubrule (17:08), and freshman Rafa Dlott (17:20) also ran well.  

After a short break with no GH Runners the Girls Invitational Race started at 10:15 with 9 GH girls toeing the line.  The girls were coming off a decent performance in the FNL Open Race, but like the boys they were ready to see some faster times.  By the time their race started the temperatures had risen 6-7 degrees, but it was still pretty comfortable.  Junior Sarah Smith would pace the Falcons again with a season-best time of 21:56 and senior Kaitlin Elliott had another PR of 22:29.  Overall 6 of the 9 girls in the race finished with a career PR. 

It turned out to be a good day for the Falcons as 42 of 56 runners set a career PR.  The next big race for the team is next weekend at McAlpine Park in the Hare and Hound Invitational.