Another cross country season has ended and I would certainly say that it was a success. The War Eagles were once again on the podium but more importantly, our runners saw the rewards that come with hard work, perseverance, and grit.

Boys 7A State Championship Race

As the runners toed the line, the temperature was hovering in the upper 30’s. I am fairly confident that our team would prefer this over the hot and humid conditions that seemed to be the norm for much of the season. The gun sounded and several War Eagles positioned themselves near the front of the pack as the course took a slight right turn before heading to the long straight away.  As expected, Myles Collins of Archer had already started to pull away from the pack at the half mile mark. Brennan Bower was positioned quite well at this point as he was in second overall and leading the large pack chasing Collins. The pack started to thin out somewhat as they neared the long straightaway at the front of the elementary school. As the runners passed Separation Ridge (Separation Ridge is a hairpin turn where runners climb a short but very steep hill. From there, the runners can easily see the separation between them and the trailing runners and this is why I think this section of the course is so named) at the 1.25 mile mark, Brennan was in the top ten and was still the lead War Eagle as he had settled in with a group of six runners. Mikey Patterson was second on the team and was followed a few seconds later by Nate Verska.  Joe Pontrelli and Harrison Siegel were running together and they were followed by Mark Martin and Sebastian Elisan. At the 2.25 mile mark, Brennan was now with a group of five that had really separated from the rest of the field and included Cooper Bocko (Lambert), Kyle Harkabus (East Coweta), Zac Shaffer (Walton) and Connor Old (Walton). Nate had taken over as the second runner on the team and Mikey was now third. Harrison moved into the fourth position on the team and Joe was about two strides behind. With a little over a quarter of a mile left in the race, Brennan crested Separation Ridge for the last time and was now in fourth place overall as he had built a slight lead over the pack he had been running with. Nate continued with his strong race and was still second on the team followed by Mikey, Harrison, Joe, Mark and Sebastian. Myles Collins put together one of the fastest races ever on this course as he built a 19 second lead and  won with a 15:46. From what I understand, this would have been the course record if it had not been for Graham Blanks of Athens Academy who finished in 15:33 in just a few races before. At the end, Brennan was not able to hold off Kyle Harkabus who has a strong kick (the three time defending state 1600m champion and defending state 7A XC champion) and Connor Old; however, he ran a great race that capped off a great season to finish sixth overall with a 16:19. Nate put together a very strong race but was particularly impressive on the second lap as he was 37th halfway through and ended up 21st overall with a 16:57. Mikey capped off an amazing career with a 17:13 (38th) and he was followed by Harrison with a 17:15 (41st), Joe with a 17:25 (55th), Mark with a 17:41 (76th) and Sebastian with a 18:06 (104th). In the team race, Walton was first with 98, Lambert was second with 116, West Forsyth was third with 119, Marietta was fourth with 133, and South was fifth with 156.

Girls 7A State Championship

The gun sounded and the race was off, but not for long. The officials signaled to the runners that there was going to be a restart and to be honest, I was surprised since the runners had already covered quite a bit of ground. Nonetheless, the teams went back to the start for a do over. For the second go around, several War Eagles were near the front of the pack as they headed to the first straightaway.  As the runners approached the first hill behind the elementary school (about .3 miles into the race), Madelynne Cadeau had worked her way to the front of the pack and she looked impressive as she attacked the hill. Sophia Baker and Carmel Yonas were running together in about 24th and 25th overall. At the .75 mile mark Madelynne was still leading but had not yet broken away from the pack. Carmel was in 16th and Sophia was running alongside in 17th.  Emma O'Connor was in 40th and our 5th, 6th, and 7th place runners were tightly bunched with one another. By the time Madelynne reached Separation Ridge (1.25 miles) for the first time, she had built a 5 second lead over June Mwaniki of Marietta and Nyah Hernandez of Milton. Carmel and Sophia had settled into a pack and were both still running strong at 8th and 12th overall. Emma started to move up as she was now 26th. Caroline Patterson, Bella Rhone, and Sydney Copeland continued to run close together.  As the runners came down the hill to finish the first lap, Madelynne had a four second lead over Mwaniki and at this point it looked like the overall winner of the race would be one of these two athletes as they started to distance themselves from the rest of the field. Sophia and Carmel continued to work together as they were in 10th and 11th overall. Sophia maintained 26th place and she was followed by Bella in 49th, Carolyn in 66th ,and Sydney in 70th. Near the front of the elementary school (2.25 miles), Madelynne had more than doubled her lead on Mwaniki as she was now nine seconds in front of the second place runner. Sophia and Carmel maintained their positions and Emma continued to impress as she was now in 18th. Madelynne continued to lead as she crested Separation Ridge but her 9 second lead had now increased to 19. At his point, Madelynne was 400 meters from the finish and she could see the lead she had built on the number two runner. I am pretty sure that last year’s state championship race was on her mind and there was no way there was going to be a repeat as Madelynne seemed to work even harder at this point. Sophia was in 10th place and she had two Hillgrove runners a few meters in front of her. Carmel was in 11th and Emma was in 17th.  At the finish, Madelynne looked quite impressive as she sprinted down the hill by herself. She crushed the last 400 meters and won the 7A state championship by 29 seconds with an 18:46! Sophia is a strong 800 runner and she used this to move past the two Hillgrove runners into 8th place overall (19:39). Carmel closed out an impressive freshman season by finishing 11th (19:53). Emma continued to improve throughout the race and this included a strong kick at the finish to beat out an Etowah runner for a 15th place finish (20:11). Caroline also kicked hard to finish in 58th (21:17) and she was closely followed by Bella in 64th (21:20) and Sydney in 85th (21:46). The team race was very close and Hillgrove would win a close race with 77 points. The War Eagles were second with 90 followed by Walton with 99, West Forsyth with 100 and Milton with 160.

Season in review

South once again showed that it one of the premier programs in Georgia after the performance at the state championship. Milesplit does a great job of breaking down the state championship races and combines all of the runners into a single spreadsheet and scores the overall state championship like you would any other race. With this, you can see how fast all of the runners, regardless of classification, are compared to one another and you can also pull a team score. Of course, not all of the runners ran the same race at the same time but they all ran the same course over two days. Here is the ranking of team scores in the All Class spreadsheet:

Walton 232 (7A)

Lambert 279 (7A)

West Forsyth 282 (7A)

Marietta 313 (7A)

Harrison 332 (6A)

Pope 351 (6A)

SFHS 371 (7A)

St. Pius X 386 (4A)

Brookwood 432 (7A)

Norcross 435 (7A)

As you can see, the 7A boys race was by far the most competitive as 7 of the top 10 fastest teams were in this classification. It should also be noted that 1,462 runners and 210 teams were ranked in this spreadsheet so the War Eagles should hold their heads high! I think it is also important to point out that South defeated every team on this list except Harrison during a race this season. 

For the girls, 1,401 runners and 203 teams were ranked and as you can see by looking below, it is once again obvious that the War Eagles are one of the premier programs in the state year in and year out.

Marist 152 (4A)

St. Pius X 175 (4A)

Hillgrove 263 (7A)

Blessed Trinity 282 (4A)

South Forsyth 301 (7A)

McIntosh 313 (5A)

West Forsyth 340 (7A)

Walton 351 (7A)

Oconee 485 (4A)

Cambridge 503 (6A)

As far as individuals are concerned, Brennan became just the third War Eagle to place in the top ten at the boys state championship since 2002. I would also like to give a shout out to Mikey Patterson who has been a scorer on the boys varsity team for four years. Mikey accomplished a very rare feat, especially in a very strong program, in that he ran in four state championship races and he helped to lead his team to a podium appearance on two occasions. Harrison and Joe are great examples of what happens if you work hard. They both started out their cross country careers as JV runners and put in enough miles and effort to turn into solid third and fourth runners on a very deep team. In addition to Nate’s great second lap at state, he also had one of the biggest improvements on the team in terms of his PR. As a freshman, Nate’s PR was a 17:23 and improved to 16:27 as a sophomore. Mark started off the season on JV and he steadily improved up until the regional championships. During this race, he made a big jump in his PR as he joined the 16 minute club with a 16:46. Finally, Sebastian made a huge improvement in his PR this year (17:03) as compared to his sophomore season (17:57) and I am sure it is just a matter of time before he joins the 16 minute club next season.

And now for a review of the the girls individual performances.  South girls have been on the podium numerous times since 2002; however, the individual championship has eluded the War Eagles. It was great to see Madelynne finally bring home the individual championship to a proud program in a way that left no doubt that she was the top runner in her race. Sophia has been a fixture on the varsity since her freshman year and has run the championship race at Carrollton four times. This year was her best finish (8th overall) and she has helped her team to three second place finishes and one championship. Caroline has also been a fixture on the varsity for four years and has also run the state championship race four times and has been a crucial part of three second place finishes and one championship team. Sydney and Bella are great examples of perseverance and determination. In their early years at South, both started out on JV and they eventually worked their way onto varsity the last two years where they represented the team on the podium. Finally, Carmel put together a memorable freshman year where she just missed making the top ten in state (it is worth mentioning that she was the fastest freshman in this race though) and also just missed breaking into the 18 minute club.

I want to give a BIG THANK YOU to our coaches. The team started training for this meet back in June. For the last five months, you have spent many long hours with our kids and you have no doubt been quite meaningful in molding them not only as athletes but also as young men and women who will definitely understand what it takes to compete and excel in their education and in their future professions.

Finally, I am planning on putting out one last newsletter in December that will summarize any post season races (Race of Champions, Foot Locker, etc.) that our athletes may run. It would also be nice to include any information on our seniors and where they might be attending college (if they know by December).  And Finally, I will also attempt to provide updates on War Eagle alumni that are running in college.

That’s it for now, see you at the banquet!