Hope you enjoyed the short trip to Milton as “road trip” is going to be the theme for the next several meets, as we make our way first out of state and then several trips to the other side of Atlanta.

Before we get to the meet, I want to give a shout out to Ben Bergey and say he rose a notch in my book.  Not for his race at Milton or for being selected as Milesplit’s August runner of the month, but because of his interview with them where he mentioned “Shawshank Redemption” as one of his favorite movies. Good choice Ben - a favorite in our house too!

We had a couple of folks skip this one as ACT testing was last weekend.  I’ve long argued that nobody would make a football player choose between college testing and playing a game, so not sure why cross country runners have to do that, but that’s just me being old and cranky (even if I’m right)!

The Boys

Nate Verska was one of the absences, so Ben did not have his normal racing partner Saturday, but it didn’t change the outcome.  Ben had a few go out with him on the first 1k loop, but he separated early and was never really threatened as he took his 3rd win of the year.  The biggest issue with not having Nate push him was his final time, which was impressive at 17:05 on the hilly course, but wound up as the 6th fastest all-time on the course, just 1 second off Ben getting his name up on the scoreboard where the top 5 are displayed.

Ben Winn also got a nice nod from Milesplit last week, as he was called out as the 2nd fastest freshman so far in 7A and he showed it Saturday with a great 16th place finish.  Behind him, Harris Garmon and Wyatt Longstreth did a nice job working together through the middle of the race, before Harris ultimately pulled away as South’s 3rd in 54th.  Results get murky from there.  Wyatt doesn’t show a final time in the official standings, (lost chip, perhaps?), but I saw him come in not too far behind Harris, outkicking a runner from Chamblee, which would put him somewhere between 57 and 60. 

Without Wyatt, it was Rishi Nagappan and Adam Zorko rounding out South’s 5, finishing together in 84th & 85th, respectively.  That left South with 230 points and a 7th place finish in the official scoring. But if you factor in Wyatt and accept that Nate would have been at or near the top finishers, you could probably drop ~100 points off their score, which would leave South fighting for 3rd place with Sequoyah. Either way, they would not have been in the hunt for the team title, which saw West Forsyth continue their strong start to the year with another win (71 points), with Lambert taking 2nd (90 points). It’s also worth calling out that Lambert was without their top runner, so both these teams look like podium contenders come state.

In the JV race, Grant Longstreth again led the South boys, taking 23rd overall.  It was nice seeing Thomas Lichtenwalner make his season debut.  After a promising time trial, Thomas had some injury issues, and while he might have wished for a more runner-friendly course for his high school debut, it was good to see him back in action taking the 2nd spot for South at 71st overall. 

Last week, I said not to expect any PR’s, but it looks like Zach Gold thankfully didn’t listen as he took over 30 seconds off his PR, landing 3rd for South in 78th.  KD Vadlamani & Kellen Cain took the final two scoring spots, finishing together in 83rd & 84th as South took 9th among the 22 scoring JV teams.

The Girls

Blessed Trinity did not run their varsity at this meet, so it appeared to really open the door for several schools to fight for the team title.  Recognizing that, a 5th place finish probably was not what South was hoping for the ladies in this one, but we’ll take the experience and move forward from here.  Carmel & Izzy Yonas continue to perform very well, with them breaking away with a few others from the outset and although it was Cara Joyce from Atlanta International School that ultimately broke away from everyone to take the win, followed 5 seconds later by Claire Shelton of Dunwoody, Carmel & Izzy were just behind, taking 3rd and 4th overall.  And credit to Izzy, as she hung tough on the hills to mark her closest finish to Carmel this year, just seven seconds back.  Knowing Carmel, she’s probably thinking she should have won, but I’d remind her that her time Saturday was 1:19 faster than the last time South competed in this meet in 2019.

The top 5 for South seem to have established themselves, as it was again Janisha Patil, Caroline Turner and Molly Hanlon rounding things out.  But I’m not sure they were big fans of the hills on Saturday, as all had started to move up mid-race before fading a bit on the last loop.  Although South was probably not going to be a match for 1st place Cambridge, who took the team victory by just a point over Milton, you can’t help but look at 3rd place Lambert, just 18 points ahead of South, and not remind yourself that in this sport, ever spot counts.  A bright spot was Ava Wright, who narrowly missed out on a PR as she came in as South’s 6th runner.

In the JV race, Jules Min led the way for South, taking 68th overall, with Arushi Mishra not far behind in 73rd.  Tisha Kaur (83), Kaytlin Stinson (112) & Sree Pamulapati (115) were the other scorers for South, helping them to a 12th place team finish.

Before we head off for Fall Break, a smaller group heads over to Huntsville, AL to test themselves against some tough competition.  There will be strong teams from all over the Southeast on hand to battle against.  How tough, you ask?  Cutoff times for the championship race were so strict South is only able to race Ben B., Nate & Ben W. in that race, with the other guys running in a different varsity race.  

The course is typically very fast.  It does look like a decent chance of rain over the next few days, which could soften things up.  Throw in a slew of races Friday night and the course could be a bit beat up by the time our kids tow the start line.  I’m not even going to attempt to predict anything.  If the course holds up, fast times will win - on the boys side folks will be chasing sub-15:00.  For the girls, the top runners from both AL & TN will be in the championship race, so low 17’s are likely.  Whatever happens, it will be a great experience for the runners and some great cross country to watch.

If you aren’t making the trip over to Huntsville, have a safe & relaxing break!