Green Hope Cross Country

Wednesday October 18th was a very important day for the Green Hope Cross Country team as it was the SWAC Conference Championship. Wake Med Soccer Park was a busy place on this day as every runner for every team in the conference gets a chance to run with 2 varsity races followed by 2 JV races all beginning at 4:00pm.  As only the top 7 boys and top 7 girls will race in the regional meet the following weekend most runners know this is the last opportunity they have this year to get out there and go for a PR and compete with their friends and teammates. 

The first race of the afternoon was the Boy’s Championship Race.  The weather was a little warmer than the runners would have preferred as it was 70 degrees at 4:00, but the boys were excited to get things going.  While Green Hope had won the last 4 conference titles, this year was a bit more of an unknown as to what would happen on race day.  Cary and Green Hope had each defeated the other during the regular season and Holly Springs and Apex Friendship were also in the mix for the team title so any of the 4 had a chance.  The conference meet can play out much differently than big invitationals or the state meet as there are far fewer runners and thus team scores can be very close.   It was clear early on it would be a close race and in the end Holly Springs stepped up and pulled away for their first conference title (62-70).  Earning all-conference for the boys was junior Seamus O’Driscoll (PR 16:14), sophomore Gabe Cardenas (PR 16:27), and senior Sebastian Percival-Shim (PR 16:36).  Sophomore Ian House (PR 16:57) and senior Matt Dubrule (PR 16:58) rounded out the scoring for the Falcons.

The second race of the day was the Girl’s Championship Race.  The girls had a learning year to say the least with many of the top 9-10 runners being freshmen.  The girls came a long way during the year and with many younger runners seeing some early success the girls are very hopefully and excited for the future.  While the team results were not great, the girls ran very well with 5 of the 8 runners setting a new career PR.  Senior Kaitlin Elliott (PR 21:40), freshman Amruta Mayadeo (PR 21:43), senior Lily Slaughter (21:44), sophomore Charis Choy (PR 21:52), and junior Sarah Smith (22:03) were the scoring Falcons.

The third race of the day was the Boy’s JV race.  This has typically been a race that Green Hope has dominated as the Falcons had won the last 21 JV conference team titles and they would be the favorites heading into the race again today.      From start to finish the boys dominated again, winning the JC conference race for the 22nd straight year.  Sophomore Miguel Carrasco Gomez won the individual title with a time of 17:18 (PR) and was followed by runner-up Andrew Leary (PR 17:23), Matheo Destouesse (17:32), Sky Choy (17:38), and freshman Berk Robottom (PR 17:47) as the boys scored a perfect 15pts.

The final race of the day was the Girl’s JV Race.  The Falcons had a 19 year winning streak in this race broken in 2021, but the girls JV was able to win again in 2022 so they had managed to win 20 of the past 21 JV team titles.    The girls finished 3rd today as a team and were led by freshman Dannika Scruggs running a huge PR of 22:12.  The other scoring girls were Sophie Stachler (PR 23:15), Gwen Slaughter (PR 23:19), Delaney Cowen (PR 23:23), and Maja Hendricks (PR 23:46).  

It was a very good end to the season for many of the Falcon runners, as there were lots of PRs.  Next up for the top 7 runners is the Mideast Regional Meet at Wake Med on October 28th.