The last meet was nicknamed “the prison run” so what should we refer to this one as?  Some parents may opt for “drive for an hour and a half for two 10-second views of your child running” but Coach Long is more likely to call it “camp out at the 1 mile mark in the woods and fight off mosquitos for 2 hours.”  I’ll let you decide.

Lions Invitational

The warnings had been given in the description of the course - expect muddy, technical trails with deceptively tough hills.  Translation - this is not a day for PR’s.  The reality Saturday was something much different as South burned up the course.  In fact, I was starting to wonder if I was at a cross-country meet or an episode of Oprah (“You get a PR!  You get a PR!”).  Sorry, runners, that joke was definitely for the parents.

But it was no joke what South accomplished Saturday.  I had mentioned in the last newsletter Etowah being registered for this meet, but they only sent their JV teams, which really opened things up for South to shine.

The Girls

We were once again blessed with overcast skies and cooler temperatures for the earlier races.  But with a one-loop course and most of the middle two miles in the woods, spectators had to choose their spots carefully.  My first vantage point was ~500 meters in and the pack of 87 runners had already started to spread.  You had Cara Joyce from Atlanta International School, who took second at the North GA Championship race a couple of weeks ago, again leading the way with Carmel Yonas at her side.  Izzy Yonas was right with them, with a steady stream of runners behind, including Molly Hanlon, who was sitting around 15th and trying to fight her way forward after a tight start.  South was missing Emma O’Connor (ACT’s) and Sienna Brennan (sick), so were looking for others to step up into the scoring spots for this race.  Janisha Patil was still in contact and Madi Butler, Pragna Veeravelli and Ansley Rogers were together mid-pack.

This was the one race that I made the run through the woods to catch the runners just past the 1 mile mark.  Serious separation had occurred by now.  Carmel and Cara were leading the way, with Izzy still hot on their heels.  A few more runners were strung out behind them and then Molly had worked her way to a small pack that made up the rest of the top 10.  Janisha looked good just 10 seconds back and Madi and Pragna were still close to one another before I made my mad dash back out of the woods.  

My last view was on the short hill before the kick to the finish, but there was not much kicking to be done among the leaders.  Cara from AIS had pulled away and took the win in 19:38.  Carmel was the only other runner to break 20 minutes with her 19:52 2nd place finish.  Izzy may have fallen off from the top two, but she buried everyone else, notching a 23-second PR taking 3rd. The first real race came for 5th place, where Molly charged off the hill to try to overtake a girl from Grady, but got blocked along the right edge of the course and missed out on 5th by three tenths of a second.  But don’t feel bad, as her 6th place finish came with a 27-second PR.  Janisha also had a great day, as she took 10th with a nice PR as she broke 22 minutes for the first time.  

Putting 4 runners in the top 10 will normally assure you of an easy victory, but as we counted jerseys, the gals from Grady just kept coming.  They had two top 10 finishers and had their scoring 5 all in the top 17, then 6 & 7 runners 21st and  23rd.  But we were fortunate to have Madi Butler land her own PR and her 29th place finish sealed the narrow 6 point victory for South.  Rounding out South’s 7 were Pragna with a season’s best time in 35th place and Ansley landed in 51st.

The sun had broken through the clouds and the temperature was rising by the time the JV girls took off.  And when you choose not to go running through the woods, your perspective on a one-lap course is severely limited.  Sorry JV ladies...let’s see.  They started, they finished, they looked tired coming up the hill.  They did very well, with only 6 runners competing, they managed to take 3rd as a team.  Emily Barnes led the way with her 4th place finish.  The rest of the scorers came in succession, with Neeti Jain (10th, PR), Gigi Grady (11th, PR), Shea Czajkoski (12th) and Madeline Braley (13th).  Vishaka Venkatraman was 6th for South and 39th overall.

Before leaving the JV race, I need to give a special shout out to freshman Gigi Grady.  While I footnoted her PR performance with her 11th place finish, folks should know that she dropped a whopping 4 minutes off her previous best 5k, which came back at the Lambert meet.  It’s always awesome to see the younger runners start to figure this sport out.  Way to go, Gigi!

The Boys

Varsity boys started off the day and really set the tone for South.  Nate Verska and Ben Bergey were up with the leaders as they rounded the first turn, but all the South runners looked to be in good shape before disappearing into the woods.  I can’t say exactly what transpired there - did I mention this wasn’t a spectator friendly race - but somewhere in there Nate put on some serious jets and was comfortably in the lead as he emerged.  And if you were in the general Douglas County area, that was one excited mom you heard yelling for Nate as he didn’t let up until the finish, notching his first high school victory.  And I mentioned setting the tone for the day, as Nate’s win came with a solid PR as well.  

Ben Bergey ran a phenomenal race as well, taking third, just seven seconds behind second.  But more importantly, he broke the difficult 17-minute barrier for the first time, grabbing a hard-earned 16:47 PR.  And within the minute, South had closed out the scoring, with Pujith Veeravelli taking 8th, Devin Schmuckal 10th (and a nice bounceback from last meet) and Sebastian Elisan 11th.  And while none may have been PR’s, they all were season’s bests.    Finally, with Owen Wargo’s PR and 13th place finish and Aadi Jain’s fastest time of the year grabbing 28th, it should be no surprise that South took a solid team win, with their 33 points  besting second place Lassiter’s 108.

Motivated by what they saw in the two varsity races, as the JV boys set off, you had Sam Gullo and Andrew Wison darn near sprinting out of the starting area and straight to the front.  Word at the mile was that the first 5 runners were all wearing the South blue and while that may not have held for the last two miles, it was pretty darn close.  Sam took the win and his 18:24 would have earned him a top 20 finish in the varsity race.  

I had heard that freshman Adam Zorko was looking forward to a good trail race and his performance showed it with a nice PR good for 2nd place.  Harris Garmon rounded out the top 3 for South.  And while a couple other schools managed to sneak in after that, South quickly sealed the team win with Andrew Wilson’s 7th place finish and Brett Dunlap in 8th and a fantastic 21 point team total.  But the solid performances didn’t stop there.  Josh Wilson ran a PR and took 13th as South’s 6th man and Kaleb Hammond came in 24th while knocking 2 minutes off his PR. Andy Harbinson also PR’d in the JV race.  Great job to the guys!

Up Next

Fall Break!  Enjoy the time off school but not time off running.  Believe it or not, we are just at the halfway point on the season.  And if you enjoyed the long drive to the other side of Atlanta last weekend, you will love what’s up ahead.  The next meet will be the Alexander/Asics Invitational on October 3rd.  This is a race South hasn’t run in for several years and while it requires another trip down to Douglasville, GA, it is at the beautiful Foxhall Sporting Club and is well known for stiff competition and a pretty flat, fast course (for perspective, last year’s race had 4 guys run under 15 minutes and 4 girls go under 18).  If you can make it, it’s worth the drive.