Whew, what an exciting morning of region competition! Forget the racing, I’m talking about the battle in the Lambert parking lot over whether the $10 was to park or per person for admission. A little sleuthing on Milesplit tells me all other regions are either $10 parking or $5/person - just saying. And it wasn’t lost on me that every Lambert parent was a “volunteer” so was able to park at Chattahoochee Pointe Park. Oh, the perks of hosting. But it was nice to have the meet so close and the course turned out pretty good, both from a speed and spectator standpoint.

Boom - just like that, South extended their season by two more weeks, as both the boy’s and girl’s team punched their ticket to state. Based on that, you know they ran great. And many on the JV side who see their season close after region went out in style, so let’s get right to the races.

The Girls

This was set up as a great duel. South’s Izzy Yonas and Denmark’s Morgan Grace Sheffield had run by far the fastest times in the region this year, but had not been in the same race yet this season. They had very similar overall seasons (1 win and 2 seconds for each), with Morgan Grace sporting a slightly better PR, but she ran that at Asics so I didn’t put too much stock in that. They were also the top two returners from last year’s region meet, where Sheffield finished one spot above Izzy. So we are in for a dogfight, right? Well, apparently Izzy had different plans. I’ve praised Izzy this year for her patient running, but I have to admit it was awesome to see her just go and challenge everyone else with “if you want the win, you have to come beat me.” My first view after the start was maybe 800m in and Morgan Grace was still with her and the pack hadn’t strung out too much. But by the 1 mile, Izzy had opened up a 5-second gap and the race was all but over. In fact, reviewing the video, the top 6 positions didn’t change from the mile on. The only difference was the size of the gaps, as Izzy cruised to an impressive 27-second win and new PR.

Behind that group was where the dogfight occurred. Molly Hanlon was sitting 9th at the mile, but slowly worked her way up and by the 2-mile mark had climbed to 7th. West’s Sophie Kyle wasn’t giving in that easy, though and had overtaken Molly as they headed toward the finish, but Molly unleashed a furious kick to run her down and grab the final 1st team-all region spot.  Dani Schmuckal did not necessarily get out great and early on was sitting just outside the top 25 in the small 40-runner field. By the mile she was up to 21st and closing on Paige Harden, who was just a few seconds ahead at that point. I’ve gotten used to seeing Susan Price up near Dani and she was only 5 seconds back at 800m, but that gap had grown to 15 seconds by the mile as knee problems seemed to be slowing her down a bit. Luckily, Pratima Yellayi and Ava Wright were working their way up at the same time.

Once Dani caught Paige, they ran together for a bit, but when a couple runners went by with about a half mile to go, Dani made the decision to go with them and had a very strong finish of her own as she set a new PR, breaking 21 minutes for the first time and finishing a solid 15th. Paige hung on for 21st. Ava and Pratima caught Susan near the finish and they all finished in quick succession, with Ava 30th, Susan 31st and Pratima 32nd. Congrats to Ava and Pratima who both set new PR’s for the second straight week. 

In the team standings, the last two years have been a battle between Lambert and South, with Lambert taking each region title by two points. So it was a little odd to see neither of those teams fighting for the win, as this year it came down to Milton and West. But it was only fitting that Milton took the crown by, naturally, two points. South managed 3rd and Denmark grabbed the final girl’s berth to state.

In the JV girl’s race, if you just watched the leaders come through, you might have thought there were only two teams running, Milton and West dominated the race, with those two teams taking up the first 15 finishing spots. It took South to finally come in and break things up. Ashley Wilson and Landon Layman have been extremely close the past several races (looking at their last three races, only one second separates them), so it wasn’t surprising to see them together early. By mid-race, Ashley had started to form a gap, but Landon showed some grit as she clawed her way back and the two had a sprint-off to the finish with Ashley edging her by half a second as they finished 16th and 17th. Behind them, Arushi Mishra and Jules Min spent most of the race together but Arushi pulled away late to run a season’s best time for the 4th straight week, finishing 34th, while Jules notched a season’s best of her own in taking 40th place. Katie Wilusz has been on a roll this year, improving her PR on 4 separate occasions leading into Friday. So it was no surprise that when I told her to show off her big kick, I got an emphatic thumbs up in response and Katie zoomed to a 44th place finish to close her high school cross country career with a final PR. It’s worth noting she lowered her PR by an amazing 3 ½ minutes this season. 

Sadie Morgan came in 55th as South’s 6th runner with a PR of her own, with Kaytlin Stinson 65th, a season’s best for her. The performances didn’t stop there. Ella Jenkins closed her season with a PR and Saanvi Rambole stuck with Ella stride for stride to greatly improve her PR as well. Behind them, you had season’s bests from Lilly Jenkins, Mariana Figueroa, Aditi Kulkarni  and Olivia Hwang and PR’s from Rishita Kahandelwal and Rahini Venkapally. And the JV ladies matched the varsity team’s 3rd place finish. Well done everyone!

The Boys

Two points separating the winning team from second place. Only ten points separating the 3rd through 5th teams. We knew this one would be a battle and it lived up to the hype. With a small field of 42 runners, you didn’t have to worry too much about getting boxed in at the start - you just had to make sure you navigated around the big tree and disc golf hole and you were fine. After a swift first mile (4:50 for the leaders), there was still a pack of 6 up front, including Ben Winn. Adam Zorko was looking good in 12th, but there was quite a gap till you got to the next group of South guys, with Wyatt Longstreth, Rishi Nagappan, Camden Coker and Thomas Lichtenwalner in a large pack that represented 25th to 35th place, with Aariv Gupta about seven seconds behind them. Candidly, not where they needed to be if they were going to make it to state.

Heading toward the 2-mile mark, Ben Winn was leading a pack that had dwindled to him, Jackson Hogsed of Lambert, Ben Sydell of Denmark and West’s Diego Fernandes. Adam had climbed to 11th and Wyatt had made a big climb to 17th. Rishi was in 25th, with Camden 32nd and Thomas 33rd. Okay, folks, over half way through the race. If we scored the meet right now, here’s how it looks:

Lambert - 54

Denmark - 63

West - 78

Milton - 83

South - 90

Not good - South’s out. Time to move or go home, boys! Luckily, that’s exactly what they did.

Up front, as they came out toward the parking lot for the final loop before the finish, it was down to three, with Hogsed leading Ben Winn and Sydell. Adam had fallen back to 13th (wait, what, Adam got passed??? Unheard of!). The good news was Wyatt was up to 16th, Rishi to 20th, while Thomas was holding at 33rd and Camden in 34th. 

From that point to the finish line, there was a huge shakeup up front, as Denmark’s Sydell made a huge move at some point and buried the others to take the win. Hogsed was second while Ben Winn took 3rd. Adam held his spot to wind up in 13th. Wyatt had gained one more spot to finish 15th and Rishi continued to make up ground, landing 17th, breaking 17 for the first time. Camden held on to take 33rd and Thomas and Aariv were in 35th and 36th. That left those of us on the sidelines furiously checking live results and adding up scores before we could let out a collective sigh of relief. South had not just earned a spot at state, but had leapfrogged both Milton and West to take 3rd, two points ahead of West. That left Milton on the outside looking in. Congrats to the guys - you earned that one!

In the JV race, Grant Longstreth took up right were the varsity guys left off, getting a good start and moving up, breaking the 18-minute barrier for the first time and finishing 14th to lead the way for the guys. Ben Dubrow and Pierson Long went back and forth all race, with each leading the other at various points, but where they wound up was really irrelevant as the important thing was PR’s for both of them as they landed 29th and 30th. Similarly, Jack Herman and Kellen Cain were together throughout and finished that way as well, with Jack setting another PR in 34th and Kellen running a season’s best to take 35th (and just missing his PR by less than a second). Anubhav Behera kept his PR ways going as he just squeezed out a new one with his 43rd place. And apparently Yash Panchal didn’t want to be remembered as the 20-minute guy, so he cruised to a 19:35 PR to finish 57th. South finished 5th as a team.

There were other notable races among the JV boys as you had a total of 13 PR’s and 2 SB’s in that race, so congrats to Drew Hunt and Sohum Rao on season’s bests and Ryan Gorgone, Nikil Selladurai, Kyle Yan, Ethan Lava, Coleman Burch, Vishwa Lingatlu for new PR’s. And a special shout out to Shreyas Jukkalkar, who went full “hulk-mode” when some other runner started to pass him. That angry face and the ensuing sprint to the finish ensured him a PR as well.

You both earned your spots here, now the question is what are you going to do with that opportunity? The boys finished 14th here last year and should certainly be looking to improve on that. Harrison and Carrollton appear to be the favorites on the team side, with Denmark and Lambert also up there. On paper, it has Milton as 5th, but of course, Milton isn’t even going and South just beat them, so you never know. On the individual side, you have the defending champion (Memphis Rich) back, but he was a surprise winner last year and looking at times, you could say it is a toss up on who takes the title. Top times are remarkably close and with many posting their fastest times at Asics, I’d say that any of the top 15 guys has a reasonable shot. That would include Ben Winn, who I’m sure has his sights on his first top 10 state finish.

For the ladies, this may be the most non-suspenseful team race in history. Marietta, coming off of 3 consecutive state championships and barring anything short of an alien abduction, should easily capture their 4th title. How good are they? South’s second runner, Molly, would not even be on their varsity team, as they boast 7 runners at 19:43 or better. The only team anywhere near them, Harrison (top 5 all under 20), appears to have problems of their own, as their top runner (and two-time defending state champion), Samantha McGarity, hasn’t raced in a month and didn’t compete at their region meet. With runners seeming to be peaking at the right time, it should be fun to see how far South can outperform pre-race rankings. On the individual side, like the guys, it looks to be pretty wide open. If McGarity is back, I’d never count her out as she has proven to be a fierce competitor. There are only 3 runners who have recorded a faster time than Izzy this year - Jewel Wells of Mill Creek, Mary Nesmith of Marietta and Morgan Grace Sheffield - but all 3 of those times were run at Asics, so there is no reason to think that Yonas won’t be in the thick of things. After last year’s 11th place finish (first time outside the top 10 in her high school career), I’m sure closing out her XC season with a state title would be even sweeter.

I hope to see many of you at Carrollton!