It is hard to believe we are quickly winding down the season, with just one more race to go before the region championship. The JV got the benefit of some really nice weather running first, but the fog had burned off and full sun ruled the skies by the time we got to the championship races. Not sure it affected the runners too much but I was pooped by the end.

It was good to be back in person this weekend, getting to cheer on all four races for South. Many schools rested their top runners, which made for a lot of unpredictability on how things played out at the team level. A top school from AL brought their full strength to GA, and really dominated things. But South still had some outstanding performances.

The Girls

Mountain Brook HS from Alabama dominated the girls race, with their runners taking 1st & 3rd and putting all their top 5 in the top 21 places, as they scored a stingy 40 points to easily take the team crown. Marietta took 2nd, narrowly beating Cambridge by 9 points, while South had a solid effort to take 4th out of 16 teams in the championship race.

Carmel & Izzy took a more conservative approach with this race, going out slower from the start, but it didn’t affect the outcome, as both steadily picked off runners throughout the race, ultimately landing in 4th & 5th. Janisha ran a solid race as South’s 3rd, taking 34th overall with Caroline Turner in 46th and Molly Hanlon was 67th to close out the scoring. Shout out to Pragna in the championship race for running a season’s best to place 78th.

South had a big group of 15 runners in the girl’s JV race. And while they may not have had the firepower of the out of state schools (2 AL schools took 13 of the first 16 places), I would argue it was their best showing of the year, with 7 PR’s and several season’s bests, as the top 5 had an awesome 1-5 split of just 24 seconds. Ava Wright led the way with a PR and 47th place finish, but Gigi Grady was right on her heels, finishing 4 seconds back in 50th. The next 3, Madeline Braley (61st), Neeti Jain (62nd) & Landon Layman (63rd & new PR), worked together throughout the race before they went throwdown mode over the last 100 meters and had an awesome sprint off to the finish. Those efforts were good enough to earn South 8th place as a team.  

The ladies didn’t stop just with those 5 though. Congrats to big-time PR efforts from Jules Min (-25 seconds), Arushi Mishra (-1:04), Tisha Kaur (-46 seconds), Olivia Hwang (-2 minutes!) and Sophia Perrino (- 1:17). But despite the great efforts, judging from the pictures I saw posted on the SFHS XC website, I’d say many of the girls had more fun on the playground afterward than they did in the race!

The Boys

Both Nate Verska and Ben Bergey were out on Saturday, so South moved forward with just 6 runners going in the championship race. And a very young 6 at that, featuring 3 freshman, 2 sophomores & 1 junior. But those 6 put up a good fight as South placed 9th as a team. Ben Winn led the way in 24th, with Adam Zorko coming up just short of back to back PR’s, as he ran the second fastest time of his career, placing 48th. Harris Garmon was next in 59th, followed by Wyatt Longstreth in 78th. Josh Wilson seems to be liking these varsity races, as he had the lone PR for South in the championship race, finishing up the scoring in 91st.

Like the girls, the JV boys took advantage of the early morning race time and cool, foggy conditions to put up some great performances, with 8 PR’s in this one. KD Vadlamani and Thomas Lichtenwalner showed what hitting your pace looks like, with both running together, cheering each other on (something our varsity runners should do more of, in my opinion) and hitting near perfect mile splits, with the difference being a surge from KD over the last mile that led him to 29th place as South’s first runner, with Thomas in 33rd and both dropping under 20 minutes for the first time in their XC careers. Grant Longstreth was next for South, finishing 47th with a PR of his own. Jackson Waddell was 64th and Kellen Cain 74th (and new PR) to round out the top 5 as South finished 6th in the team standings.  

Calling out a few other notable performances...PR’s for Jay Ariga, Andy Harbinson & Coleman Burch. And while Zach Gold did PR Saturday, I wanted to give him a special shout out, as he has PR’d in every race this year - even more incredible when you recognize that even includes Milton. And finally, props to Corban Frasier, who even though he wasn’t able to run, talked his dad into making the hour plus drive to the meet just so he could cheer on his teammates. That’s some team spirit!

As the final tune-up before state qualifying begins, Coach Wood has long been a very competitive race as the top teams across the state look to see how they stack up. While I haven’t heard officially, I’m operating under the assumption that South will be competing in the championship races, which will get our runners in the first 4 races of the day. Good news from a weather standpoint, but it’s going to mean a very early bus ride as well as an early, long drive for those of us heading down to the meet.

The course should be very fast, with a flat two loops that is also very spectator friendly. I’ve given up trying to handicap these races. But it is safe to say our top runners in both the guys and girls should be in the mix and there will be plenty of deep competition for every runner.

See you in Whitesburg!