Well, after meets in Huntsville in ‘21 & ‘22 and now Oakville this year, I think I can safely say there is no good way to get from Forsyth County to north Alabama.  But whether you traveled the back roads over the mountain or tried the highways and fought the traffic in Atlanta and Birmingham, I was quite impressed with the strong turnout of parents that found their way over to cheer on the team.

There was plenty to cheer for so let’s get right to it.

My “in the moment” impression was if you like ant hills, rickety bridges and claustrophobia, this was the place for you.  With 147 teams competing, it was crowded. But I do have to say it was very well organized as evidenced by them getting through 8 races in 2 ½ hours. The downside of that efficiency was the gun was going off every 15 minutes, so I have to admit I missed the early parts of both JV races as I was still out on the course chasing varsity runners.  

The Boys

The varsity guys got us started and in order to see them at all the first mile, you had to make the first trek across the bridge that’s barely wide enough for two people and wobbles and shakes as you cross it.  As hundreds of us went trippy-trapping over the bridge, I was waiting for the troll to jump out!  (you know, like in “Three Billy Goats Gruff” - do high schoolers even know what that is, or am I just showing my age?).

Anyway, we all made it over the bridge without taking a swim or getting eaten by a troll. And how exciting it was to see Ben Winn coming around near the one-mile mark sitting just inside the top 20.  Adam Zorko was only 15 seconds back but found himself around 60th place. Another 15 seconds and you had Wyatt Longstreth, Rishi Naggappan and Thomas Lichtenwalner together just outside the top 100. Keeping with the theme, Aariv Gupta and Camden Coker were running together 15 seconds behind them.  

Once the runners started to spread out as the race went on, it became increasingly more difficult to find everyone.  In a meet this big, the number of blue singlets with white lettering really threw me off.  Or maybe my brain was just a little scrambled from the back and forth on the bridge. Anyway, over those last two miles, there may have been a little shuffling back and forth, but there was not a lot of movement up front as Ben led the way for South with his 15th place finish, just good enough to get called to the stage for the award presentations. Adam moved up steadily (I feel like a broken record when talking about Adam) and was rewarded with a new PR to go with his 26th place. Wyatt had a great 2nd mile that saw him put a large gap on the rest of the South pack and climb well up in the field and he was able to keep the momentum to a 59th place finish.  Rishi held steady throughout, gaining just a few spots to finish 98th, with Thomas hanging on for the 5th scoring spot in 115th.  Aariv and Camden stayed close throughout, with them taking 180th and 181st. Those performances garnered South a very impressive 7th place out of 49 teams and they were the top placing team not from Alabama.

For the JV guys, the good news of them going off in the middle of the girl’s varsity race was that I was spared the rickety bridge, but really didn’t see anyone until close to the 2-mile mark. Ben Dubrow was leading the way for South and looking good and he powered through that last mile to a new PR and his first sub-19 minute performance, running 18:58 to land 72nd.  Grant Longstreth may have gone out a little aggressive in his first mile, as he gave back some ground over the 2nd mile before rallying for a strong final mile to finish 83rd.  And speaking of strong last miles, Josh Wilson was 20 seconds behind Grant at the 2-mile mark, but ran a much faster mile 3 to pass a ton of runners and finish right behind in 84th.  Collin Hardy was next for South,  taking 97th.  Wrapping up the scoring for South was Pierson Long, who took 117th, one spot ahead of Jack Herman. Yash Panchal was 138th and Nikil Selladurai hung with Yash every step of the way, letting him help him to a new PR in 139th.  The JV boys also did well as a team, taking 10th out of 39 teams.

The Girls

I again was able to position myself to see the varsity girls come through just after they came around the lake and again near the mile mark and it was great to see Izzy not up front.  What am I talking about, why wouldn’t we want Izzy up front, you might be wondering. Izzy tends to go to the front, hang with the leaders as long as she can and see what happens. But it looked like she took a bit of a more conservative approach out of the gate and positioned herself much like Ben Winn, sitting around 20th over the first mile and in the second pack of runners. She did not stay there for long and as the pack began to string out, she picked off runners steadily and as she headed toward the 2-mile mark, she was all the way up to 6th.  And then she ran an even faster final mile to blast her way to a new PR and tied her best ever HS XC finish, taking 2nd in 18:31.  

Molly Hanlon and Paige Harden were together in that first mile, sitting around 60th.  By the 2nd mile, Molly had pulled away and climbed inside the top 40.  She fought hard over the last mile to gain a few more spots, taking 33rd and running her fastest September time ever.  I don’t know which was louder, the squeal of Molly and Coach Mendez celebrating at the finish line or all the girls in the tent when the field mouse made its mad dash among them.  Paige took 3rd for South in 74th place, with Danielle Schmuckal next in 117th. Pratima Yellayi had a solid day, running her 2nd fastest time ever for 167th. And Susan Price just missed crashing the scoring party and literally crashed into Pratima as she closed hard to nab a PR and 168th place. Ava Wright closed things out for the varsity ladies in 187th. South was 14th in the team scoring out of 41 teams - well done.

With apologies to the JV ladies, like the JV boys, I really only got to see the last half of this race, so don’t have a lot of race commentary.  It looks like Landon Layman led South from the start and finished in 78th.  Ashley Wilson had by far her best race of the season, taking 97th, with Jules Min (138th), Katie Wilusz (142nd) and Arushi Mishra (146th) running as a pack to help South to a 16th place team finish. Rounding things out for South were Kaitlyn Stinson in 181st, Lilly Jenkins in 207th, Sadie Morgan 211th and Ella Jenkins 218th.  

Great job to all the runners and I hope you enjoyed the trip.

Okay, runners, I’m not going to sugarcoat this one - Milton will be the toughest XC course you will run all season. Milesplit did an analysis last season and declared Milton as the most difficult course in the state of GA.  What that really means is that you can stop worrying about PR’s and just race. Everyone you are up against is running the same hilly 5k that you are, but this is where those Monday morning hills are going to pay off, so just focus on racing.  

As usual, Milton is turning the race order on its head, running everything backward from most meets - meaning they start with the Open races, then run JV and finish with Varsity. The good news is with no one from South in the open races, folks will get a much more manageable 7:10 a.m. bus call.

There will be good competition, including getting a good look at some of our region rivals, with West, Lambert and, of course, Milton competing in this one (though I’ve heard Lambert may not be running their full squad). For the spectators, the fact that this is in Milton should make everyone happy (later races, shorter commute - woo hoo!).

I hope to see you all at Milton!