Darlington Festival

I hope your fall break was enjoyable! It certainly started off on a great note for the War Eagles at the Darlington Festival as all teams put together a tremendous showing. The course was one of the more spectator friendly courses that I have seen and Milesplit was on hand for coverage.

The JV girls were the first War Eagles to tackle the Darlington course which consisted of two laps. Each lap consisted of three parts: the athletic fields (where the meet would start and finish), the grassy loop, and the forested loop. Like most races, it took a bit of time for the pack to thin.  At the end of the first grassy loop (approximately a half mile into the race), South was running in the following order: Ansley Rogers, Paige Sobzcack (who was in her first race of the season after recovering from an injury), Pragna Veeravelli, Janisha Patil, Mohana Malpati, Gabby Zucco, and Ruth Ann George. After the grassy loop, the runners headed to the forested loop that included Coyote Climb, the name that Darlington has given to the hill on this part of the course.  Once the runners emerged from the forested loop, it was much easier to determine places as the field had spread out considerably.  Paige was the lead War Eagle and she was running 21st. Ansley and Emily were running alongside each other about 15 meters behind Paige. Pragna was in 29th followed closely by Janisha in 30th and Gabby who was 38th.  Ruth Ann and Shea Czajkoski were running together and were in 59th and 60th place. The 2-mile mark was about half way through the second pass of the grassy loop and this is where Paige and Emily began to improve their positions.  The next South runners to exit the loop and head to the forest were Ansley, Janisha, Pragna and Gabby.  Next came a pack of four War Eagles (Shea, Ruth Ann, Kate Ward, and Vishaka Venkataman). After the final lap in the forest, the runners would have a little over 400 meters to go before they reached the finish line.  Paige was the first War Eagle to cross the finish line at 23:42 which was good for 14th place and she was followed by Emily (19th / 23:55), Ansley (27th / 24:30), Gabby (37th / 24:57), Janisha (40th / 25:05), Pragna (44th / 25:20) and Shea (47th / 25:28). Walton placed first with 15 points, and the War Eagles were fourth with 104.               

As the gun sounded to start the JV boys race, no South runners were visible at the front as there are several

experienced runners in this group and they certainly showed it as they did not come out too fast and used the entire length of the course to improve their positions. At the half mile mark, Chris Willusz was in second and a pack of War Eagles (Devin Schmuckal, Sebastian Ellison and Colin McClelland) were running in the top twenty and Dylan Brennan and Pujith Veeravelli were only a few seconds behind. The runners then disappeared into the forest for a loop that was approximately one mile and included Coyote Climb.  I am not exactly sure what happened in the forest, but this is where our team began to move up in a big way.  As the runners exited the loop, Chris had taken over the lead and Colin and Sebastian continued to run together and were now in second and third respectively.  Devin was only a few seconds back and had improved to sixth place.  The course then took the runners back onto the soccer field and then turned them around so that they could begin the final lap. Entering the big grassy loop, Chris, Colin, and Sebastian all maintained their positions but Devin picked off two runners to move into the fourth spot.  It was in this loop where you could see how strong the War Eagles were in comparison to the other teams. Pujith was in ninth, Dylan was thirteenth, and Patrick was in twenty eighth, but they all continued to move up and improve as they passed the two-mile mark. Before heading into the forest (approximately 2.3 miles), we still held the top four positions and Pujith was now running in sixth and just a few steps behind the fifth-place runner. As a team, we were close to a perfect score but there was still a good bit of racing left. Like the first time around, I am not sure what happened in the forest, but it was once again great news for the team as we now had six of our runners in the top ten. As the runners exited the trees and entered the chutes, Colin was in front and ended up winning the race in 18:21 for his first ever high school victory.  Devin was second (18:33) and Sebastian was just a few steps behind in third (18:34).  The next two War Eagles raced down the chutes and it was clear that the JV boys would end up with a perfect score as Pujith finished fourth (18:45) and Chris was fifth (18:47).  Dylan finished in eighth (19:01) and to place an exclamation point on the team performance, Patrick outkicked and passed a runner from Colins Hill just a few meters from the finish for tenth place (19:06). Our perfect team score of 15 was far out in front of second place Walton who wound up with 80. 

The varsity girls were up next and as the gun sounded, Madelynne Cadeau immediately made her way to the front of the pack and several War Eagles were not far behind. As the pack entered the grassy loop for the first time, Madelynne was out in front along with a runner from Walton.  Sophia Baker was in 6^th, Carmel Yonas was 11^th, Caroline Patterson was 12^th and Emma O’Conner was 13^th. The grassy loop is over a half mile long and there is plenty of room for runners to improve their positions and several of our runners took advantage of this.  As the runners left the grassy loop and headed into the forest, Madelynne and the Walton runner were still out in front. Sophia had moved into third followed by Carmel in seventh, Emma in eighth, Caroline in fourteenth, Ashley Hunt in sixteenth, and Katelyn McLean in fortieth.  The runners emerged from the forest and passed the half point on the athletic fields.  At this point, Madelynne had put eight seconds between her and the second place Walton runner.  Sophia, Emma, and Carmel were running together in third fourth, and fifth.  Caroline was now in 11^th followed by Ashley in 20^th and Katelyn in 35^th.  The second half of the race is where the summer miles kick in and it was apparent as Madelynne increased her lead to 20 seconds as she entered the grassy loop. Sophia, Carmel, and Emma continued to work together and maintained their positions.  As the runners exited the grassy loop, Madelynne’s lead had increased to 30+ seconds and Emma, Sophia and Carmel starting putting a good bit of space between them and the next closet runners.  A special shout out goes to Ashley at this point because she was obviously in pain but she continued on and did not give up.  After the runners completed the forest loop, Madelynne entered the chutes all alone and crossed the finish line first (19:26) for her second high school victory.  Emma outkicked another runner to finish third (20:39) while Carmel came in fifth (20:56), and Sophia was sixth (21:16).  Caroline outsprinted two runners in the chutes to finish ninth (21:32), Katelyn was twenty-sixth (22:42) and Ashley was thirty-sixth (23:04).  Placing five runners in the top nine resulted in 24 points and a first-place finish for the War Eagles while Walton came in second with 50.

As the varsity boys were getting ready to run the last race of the day, it appeared that the team title would come down to a South versus Walton showdown.  The gun sounded and runners from Walton and South were near the front of the pack as they headed to the grassy loop.  Early on, Devin Wade from Whitefield Academy jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. Brennan Bower settled into second place and two Walton runners were just a few steps behind.  After the first grassy loop was finished, it looked like the showdown was going to be a good one as Walton had a slight advantage.  As Walton exited the grassy loop and entered the forest, they were running 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 19.  As for the War Eagles, they were running as follows: Brennan 2, Mikey 6, Harrison 12, Joe 14, Nate 17, Ben 18, and Mark Martin 23. If there is one thing that I have learned about cross country, it is this: the strength of your team is very much a measure of your third through seventh runners. There are several teams that have a strong front runner or two but they are unable to seriously contend as a team because their third, fourth, and fifth place runners are nowhere near as capable as their first.  Harrison Siegel, Joe Pontrelli, Nate Verska, and Ben Bergey have provided the strength in the 3 through 5 spots that are necessary to win as a team and this race would not be an exception.  As the pack exited the forest and passed the halfway mark on the athletic fields, Brennan was started to put some distance between him and the two Walton runners.  Mikey was running in seventh just a few strides back from Walton number 3.  Harrison and Joe had greatly improved their positions as they were now in ninth and tenth.  Nate was 14^th, Ben was 18^th and Mark was 22^nd.  The rest of the Walton’s top five runners were in 13^th, 15^th, and 24^th.  The last lap would be even better for the War Eagles as Brennan really began to separate from Walton’s top two as he entered the grassy loop, Mikey moved into fifth, and Harrison and Joe were now eighth and ninth. After the grassy loop, the runners disappeared into the forest and when they emerged, Brennan was in second all by himself as he crossed the line with a strong kick in 16:31.  From there, several War Eagles would finish in rapid succession.  Mikey was fifth (17:13), Harrison was sixth (17:18), Joe was seventh (17:21), Ben was ninth (17:28), Nate was seventeenth (17:54) and Mark was eighteenth (17:56). To my point earlier about team strength, Walton’s sixth and seventh runners finished 40th and 48th while our six and seven finished 17th and 18th.  Obviously, the War Eagles would take the championship as they scored 29 points while Walton finished second with 55.          

There are a couple of notable moments that are worth mentioning from this week that do not appear in the results.  First off, Emily Barnes had a strong race, especially in comparison to her time at Wingfoot. To date, the overwhelming majority of season best times happened at Wingfoot as it has been the fastest course on the schedule.  When looking at times as a whole, most of the runners were 45 to 60 seconds slower at Darlington as compared to Wingfoot whereas Emily was only 19 seconds off her PR time at Wingfoot.  Harris Garmon was 62 seconds faster at Darlington than Wingfoot so it looks like all of his training is starting to pay off. Way to go Emily and Harris!   

FSU Invite

On Saturday, the War Eagles will be travelling to Tallahassee,Florida for the FSU invitational.  This is one of the larger meets in Florida as it serves as a pre-state championship tune up for Florida schools.  The race will take place at Apalachee Park, the home XC course for Florida State University. This course is certainly capable of handling a large event

like this as it has hosted some large races in the past. Although there are a few hills, the course is fairly fast and there is plenty of room for runners to pass one another.  It should be competitive as the teams are categorized (like Wingfoot) so the fastest teams and individuals will run in the same race.  It will be very hard to make any sort of predictions for this event as most of the competition will be new and I do not really know much about Florida schools or their courses but both the boys and girls teams are capable of doing well.  Finally, I have put together a list of season best and personal records (PR) for all runners.  If you are going to Florida, I wish you safe travels.  That’s it for now, see you at the races.