News: SWAC Conference Meet
2024
Tuesday October 15th marked the culmination of the 2024 season for most of the GHXCers. It was the annual SWAC Conference Championship. This is always an exciting day for the team, as it is the only day of the year that every runner competes on the same day.
The 1st race of the day was the boy’s championship. Coming into the season the boys hoped to contend for the conference title, but injuries and recent sicknesses would make the task tough on this day. In the end the boys saw lots of PRs and held on to the runner-up spot in the conference as the team’s number 2 runner could not finish due to sickness. Senior Seamus O’Driscoll once again led the way with a huge career PR of 15:46 to earn 1st team all-conference. Freshman Nathan Vo threw down the fastest-ever freshman time at GH to earn a 2nd team all-conference spot with a time of 16:13. He was followed by junior Miguel Carrasco-Gomez (16:27), sophomore Rafa Dlott (16:29), and senior Logan Blake (16:37) all running PRs.
The 2nd race of the day was the girls championship. For the 2nd straight year the majority of the girls in the top 7 would be underclassmen. After a last place finish in 2024 the girls looked to move up a spot or two and the times they had produced this year were significantly better than last year, but the conference as a whole had improved. The girls hoped to have their best showing of the year and were excited for the challenge and 5 of the first 8 girls would run their career PRs and the team raced to a 7th place finish. Freshman Isabel Short was the 1st Falcon finisher yet again (21:08) and was followed by sophomore Olivia Percival Shim (PR 21:09), senior Alicia Craia (21:23), junior Charis Choy (career PR 21:46), and sophomore Riley Blake (career PR 21:47).
The 3rd race of the day was the boys JV race which has historically been a race Green Hope has dominated having won the past 22 JV conference championships and they were the favorites again today. It was a battle with Apex Friendship right from the start as the Patriots had the lead at the halfway mark, but the Falcons fought. Sophomore Aryan Vyahalkar won the JV conference individual title with a great time of 17:21. Sophomore Amare Wakefield finished 3rd with a PR of 17:28 and senior Parva Vyas ran a season-best 17:41 to finish in 5th. Sophomore Ethan Beck (PR 18:00) and junior Parker Gray (PR 18:02) edged an Apex Friendship runner at the line and that proved to be the difference as the Falcons won by 3pts and earned their 23rd straight JV conference title.
The final race of the day was the girls JV race. The girls were coming off a 3rd place finish in 2023, but had won 20 of the previous 22 JV team titles. The Falcons did not score high in the team rankings, but 5 of the top 6 girls ran career PRs led by freshman Isabelle Andersson with a bis PR of 22:40. Sophomore Hannah Oh (PR of 23:32), sophomore Tanveer Sharma (23:34), freshman Caroline Sims (career PR 23:45), and freshman Dhyana Sivarajan (career PR 24:09) rounded out the top 5.
It was a successful finish to the season for many of the Falcons. 49 out of 86 finishers in today’s race set career PRs. The top 7 runners now look forward to competing in the Mideast regional race at Wake Med Soccer Park on Saturday October 26th.