Green Hope Cross Country

September 21st was the date for one of the most-competitive races each year in North Carolina.  The field of teams is always absolutely stacked and this year was no exception.  Several out of state teams made their way to Cary’s Wake Med Soccer Park, including traditional national power Christian Brothers Academy.  

The 1st race of the day is always the Boys JV Red Race.  Typically the GH boys are right near the top of the field in this race, although this year would test the boys’ depth as 6 of the top 15 boys were out with injuries.  10 runners would go on to PR in the race and the team finished 3rd of 28 schools in the race.  Sophomore Aryan Vyalhalkar ran a strong race to lead with boys with a new PR of 17:50.  Senior Sky Choy had a season-best time of 17:56 and was followed by junior Parker Gray (career PR 18:04), senior Michael DiGiacomo (career PR 18:09), and senior Jacob Gordon (season PR 18:29).  

The 2nd race of the day was the JV Girls Red Race going off at 8:30.  This would be another opportunity for the young girls team to compete in a huge invitational race.  The girls raced to a 13th place (of 27) finish and were led by junior Charis Choy (22:23), sophomore Lilly Burdick (22:50), sophomore Sophie Stachler (23:03), senior Claire O’Driscoll (23:35), and sophomore Tanveer Sharma (23:50). 

The championship boys race was the 3rd race of the day.  With the injuries the Falcons were dealing with it was clear that the team position might not be what the boys are accustomed to, but the 7 boys toeing the line were looking for some fast times.  The race went out extremely fast as usual.  Junior Gabe Cardenas ran a big PR of 16:14.  Behind him was freshman Nathan Vo, who ran the 2nd-fastest freshman time (16:25) ever at GH (behind GH Athletic Hall of Fame member Ryan Walling).  Rounding out the scoring on the way to a 12th place team finish (out of 34 teams) was senior Seamus O’Driscoll (16:34), sophomore Rafa Dlott (PR of 16:36), and senior Logan Blake (PR of 17:03).  

After a couple races with no Green Hope runners, the girls varsity competed in the invitational race (the middle level of the 3 varsity races).  Senior Alicia Craia ran a strong 2nd half of the race and finished with a season PR of 21:08.  Olivia Percival-Shim was the second GH finisher with a career PR of 21:19 and she was followed by freshman Kali Hansen (PR 21:38), sophomore Riley Blake (PR 21:49), and freshman Isabel Short (21:53). 

The next and final invitational race will be the Hagan Stone Invitational at Hagan Stone Park near Greensboro on Saturday October 5th.