How about that Saturday AM alarm?  It was a bus call so early that even the second bus driver couldn’t make it on time.  But take heart, we get Labor Day weekend off to catch up on some much needed sleep.  

And remember the mild weather I mentioned last week.  Well, the temperature gauge may have read in mid-70’s at the start of racing, but the bright sun and high humidity brought the full feel of an early season XC meet.  Hopefully the week off gets us to some milder September weather.

I’ve been thinking about this and believe the organizers of this race are really missing out on a marketing opportunity.  Everyone calls it the prison run already, so why not embrace it.  That nice meet shirt they printed could look cool with some razor wire fence in the background.  And that generic white bib could have “Prisoner #” emblazoned across the top.  Give this race some real street cred with the high school kids. 

Ok, let’s get to the races.

The Girls

I’ll admit I didn’t know much about some of the individuals outside of South so I wasn’t sure what to expect as I stood just a bit short of the mile mark and it was Caroline Hood of Pace that came by with a 5 second lead on Izzy & Carmel.  But at least they were running together, although several other pursuers were just a few seconds back.  It was good to see Janisha & Caroline together in 16th & 17th place, with Molly sitting with a group of girls ~25th.  

By the time they came around the lake, Hood had widened her lead and Carmel had pulled away from Izzy, while Janisha had started to move a bit on Caroline and Molly holding onto the same pack from before.

Not a whole lot of change over the second lap of the race.  Hood extended her lead and cruised to a very fast 18:15 win.  I mention that, because while Carmel may have taken 2nd, her 18:55 time was no slouch.  In fact, it was over 30 seconds faster than her winning time last week and nearly a minute faster than she ran at this meet last year.  Same with Izzy, who got passed by a couple folks over the last lap to finish 5th overall, but she, too, dropped almost 30 seconds off last week and well over a minute from this meet a year ago.  

Janisha climbed to 15th and held that the rest of the way as South’s 3rd runner and Caroline Turner ran a much more balanced race to take 17th.  Molly landed in 28th and South finished with 55 points (note the places and points don’t add up as there were runners sprinkled in that weren’t part of full teams so their places didn’t factor into the scoring).  Also good to see the gap between our #3 & #5 runners drop to 51 seconds.  But it wasn’t quite enough as Pace put their top 5 in just ahead of ours to take the team victory with 54 points.  So close!   It’s why the coaches all preach that every spot counts - no matter which runner you are, that next jersey ahead of you could be the point that makes a difference.

No JV race for the girls today as some lower turnout gave South the opportunity to run everyone in the varsity race.  As a spectator, getting out of there more than an hour earlier than expected was a welcome surprise, so props to the girls for putting themselves out there.  So to be fair to them, I took a look at how our JV team would have done had they been in the JV race.  First, top runner Kaitlyn Stinson ran a PR that would have nabbed herself a top 20 finish.  And while South may not have contended for the team title, their presence would have created some drama.  As it was, Parkview beat Roswell by 1 point, but throw South in the mix and the top 5 runners for each team would have resulted in a tie, so they would have had to go down to the 6th runner for the tiebreaker (Parkview would still come out on top).  As a team, South would have landed a respectable 6th place.  Congrats as well to Arushi Mishra, the other runner among this group that managed a PR on Saturday.

The Boys

The varsity race wasn’t quite as cut and dry this week, as a few different runners were mixing it up in the lead over the first mile.  And when I saw them coming out of the first prison loop, I can’t recall who was in the lead, but Ben Bergey was sitting in second and Nate Verska was in touch, but a few seconds back, as the field was already starting to string out.  Ben Winn was looking, well, like he always seems to, as he got out well.  Adam Zorko had a gap on Harris Garmon, with both mid-pack in the field of 127 runners.

By the end of the first lap, Ben and Nate were up front, but still had pursuers.  Ben Winn was predictably moving up and looking steady and Harris was closing the gap on Adam.  Coming out of the final prison loop, Harris had caught Adam and the two were running together and Ben B. and Nate went flying around the lake.  As they made their way down the final straight toward the finish, Ben had opened up a slight lead, but Nate put in a late surge to go for the pass.  Ben answered and they hit the line together while we all held our breath trying to see who was going to pull this one out.  Well, we didn’t literally hold our breath, and it’s a good thing as the next hour passed with everyone still asking “who won.”  In the end, it was Ben who pulled out the narrowest of victories, taking 1st by just three tenths of a second.  But really, it’s a win for both as their times were incredibly fast for this early in the season, with both notching PR’s.

Ben Winn got a PR of his own, running 17:21 and taking 27th.  Adam and Harris stayed close that last lap, but Adam threw down a kick I didn’t know he had to land in 58th, with Harris next in 59th.  That was the scoring 5 for South and if there was any question whether 7A was going to be a tough division, this meet should answer that as South’s 134 points put them in 4th place behind Roswell, Brookwood & North Gwinnett and just 2 points ahead of Parkview.

Other varsity runners that had notable races Saturday include Jackson Waddell, who is now 2 for 2 on new PR’s on the season as he came in as South’s 7th runner, and Freshmen Rishi Nagappan & Grant Gibson, who both PR’d as well.

The boy’s JV, being the last race of the day for South, got the toughest conditions, but made the best of it.  South took 6th out of 13 teams in the official scoring.  Freshman Grant Longstreth made his season debut and took 20th overall as South’s first runner in.  KD Vadlamani was listed next in 32nd, though he is listed twice with two different times, so I’m pretty sure South’s second runner in was actually Max Ressman.  Kellen Cain was next in 44th, David Delk in 60th and Zach Gold in 68th.  If you include Max’s place in the standings, South would actually jump over Buford for 5th.   

After the Labor Day weekend break, we get treated to one of our closest meets of the year, with just a short drive down to Milton High School.  Billed as one of the toughest courses in the state, so don’t look for a lot of fast times, but plenty of competition.  I always like this one as it is a good place to not worry about a PR and just go out and race.

On the boy’s side, you’ve got the host school that always runs well on this course, along with Lambert and West, plus a couple of private schools that may all be fighting for the team title.  On the individual side, there are XC state podium finishers across multiple classes, so should be a good race, but I’m not betting against South's winning duo at this point.

For the girl’s, Blessed Trinity always fields a strong squad and Cambridge, winners at Pickens, will be back.  Blessed Trinity also has a couple of runners that could compete for the individual title and Cara Joyce of Atlanta International School has the talent to run with Carmel and Izzy.  It should be a fun one.

One other note to close things out - beware the snack snatchers!  On Saturday, between races, I watched as two non-South runners casually walked up to the South tent and helped themselves to snacks.  Now, I’m not going to give them too hard a time, as I’m sure there was plenty to share, but it makes me start to wonder what might happen if I get a little hungry at the next meet.

Enjoy the holiday weekend and we’ll see you at Milton!