Green Hope Cross Country

The final invitational of the season was held on the first weekend in October and for the first time in 4 years the Falcons would be racing in the Great American Cross Country Festival.  This is considered to be one of the top races in the country each year and it would have its biggest field of runners ever in 2023.  The race brings in some of the top teams from the Eastern United States and this year was no exception.  

The first race of the day was the girl’s JV race at 8:45am.  This would be a good learning experience for the girls in a high-level race and it would be the coolest temps of the day.  The first 3 finishers for the Falcons were freshmen who set career PRs.  Dannika Scruggs (23:06), Sophie Stachler (23:43), and Tanveer Sharma (23:53) were joined in the top 5 by seniors Gwen Slaughter (23:54) and Delaney Cowen (career PR of 23:55).  

The 2nd race was the boy’s JV race and this squad has been very strong this year as the depth on the boy’s side has been on display all year.  They hoped to have another good showing and the competition would be fierce as many of the top teams in the US had their “2nd” teams in this race.  Coming up the hill the first time it was clear the Falcons would have a shot at the team title and the finish did not disappoint.  The 1st 7 Green Hope runners set career PRs and the team cruised to the title over a loaded field of 45 teams (7 of the top 9 teams were from outside NC) by a score of 54-76 (2nd place Bishop Hendricken out of RI).  The 1st 7 for the falcons were Tommy Dunn (17:14), sophomore Miguel Carrasco Gomez (17:23), sophomore Andrew Leary (17:25), junior Matheo Destouesse (17:25), freshman Jared Crump (17:50), freshman Berk Robottomm (17:56) and sophomore Adam Mitchell (17:56).  18 of 27 boys in the race set career PRs.  

The 3rd race was the girl’s “Blue” race, which was the 2nd-toughest of the 3 races.  The GH girl’s squad has been one of the younger varsity teams in the area this year, so much like the JV team this would be an important learning experience and the girls hoped for lots of PRs.  Senior Lily Slaughter led the way with a big career PR of 21:43.  Following her was junior Sarah Smith (21:57), freshman Amruta Mayadeo (21:59), freshman Lilly Burdick (career PR of 22:15), and freshman Olivia Percival-Shim (PR of 22:18).  

After 2 races with no Green Hope runners, the final race with Falcons entered would be the Boy’s Race of Champions at 11:05am.  This is one of the premier events in the country and the field was loaded.  The boys would be without their top runner, Dax Mahone, as he was dealing with an injury.  This would definitely hurt in the team standings so this race was mostly an opportunity for the boys to test themselves against many of the best teams in the southeastern United States.  Most of the 7 boys in the race got stuck a ways back in the pack early on as it was such a crowded field of teams.  Junior Seamus O’Driscoll (16:39) ran his second best time ever to lead the Falcons.  Senior Theo Zalc (17:06), sophomore Ian House (17:10), senior Sebastian Percival-Shim (17:12), and freshman Rafa Dlott (PR 17:13) rounded out the team scoring as the team finished towards the back end of the team standings.  

The next big race for the Falcons is the SWAC Championship on October 18th at Wake Med.  This is the one day of racing all year with all GHXC members running on the same day. The schedule is:

Boys Varsity 4:00

Girls Varsity 4:30

Boys JV 5:00

Girls JV 5:30