The last regular season meet is in the books and now we turn our attention to what these many months have been preparing them for. But first, a recap of last weekend.

The big change in weather may not have come until Sunday, but Saturday morning in Whitesburg was about as nice a race day as we’ve had this season. I heard one coach grumbling about the soft ground from Friday night rain and it not being a “PR” course, but looking at South’s results I’d say our runners liked it just fine.

The Guys

Running against the best teams in the state (and a few from outside as well) is tough enough, but even more difficult when you don’t have your full varsity team. And South ran without both Ben Bergey and Harris Garmon, so missed out on the chance to see how they really stack up against this level of competition. But there were still outstanding performances up and down the roster, so all in all, I’d call it a successful day. 

Let’s start with Nate Verska, who made sure he stuck with a pack of about 10 runners that pushed the pace early, going through the mile in 4:55. But as the pack started to separate in the second mile, Nate did an awesome job of not dropping off pace and then had a fantastic kick down the finishing shoot to pass two runners, finishing in an impressive 4th overall, with a new PR of 15:22, just one second off the school record Ben B. set earlier this year.

Ben Winn had a nice day as South’s second runner, taking 89th overall and basically tying his PR. The freshmen stepping up continued, with Wyatt Longstreth coming in next (220th) just 5 seconds off his PR. Freshman Thomas Lichtenwalner was 240th, with his 18:37 breaking the PR he just set last week by over a minute. Adam Zorko took the 5th spot for South in 244th. 

But more PR’s followed, with Josh Wilson making it 3 weeks in a row with a PR as he broke 19 minutes for the first time. And he was followed in quick succession with PR’s from Grant Gibson and Rishi Nagappan. South’s 4-7 runners had an amazing gap of just 11 seconds.  

The JV race gave a view into just how young this team is. South already had 5 freshman and 2 sophomores among the 9 runners in the championship race, but the 14 running in the JV race featured 1 junior, 6 sophomores & 7 freshman. Grant Longstreth led the way for South in 187th place, closely followed by Jackson Waddell in 194th. Matthew Bovenkirk had a nice PR and finished 207th, with Kellen Cain 215th, narrowly missing a PR. Anubhav Behera was South’s 5th in 223rd place with a new PR as well. Congrats to Drew Hunt, Jay Ariga, Ben Dubrow, Yash Panchal and Corban Frasier, who all PR’d in the JV race.  

The Girls

Of the teams Milesplit talked about in the meet preview on who could prevail (South was not one of them), South beat 5 of them and while we may not have been able to fight up at the top, it was a solid showing as South took 10th overall and 4th among 7A schools, notably finishing ahead of Lambert for the first time this season.

Like the guys, a lead pack emerged early and Carmel Yonas stayed in the mix. It appeared to be a slow and gradual separation among the leaders vs. someone throwing in a big surge, as Caroline Hood of Pace took control of the race and gradually stretched her lead on her way to a 10-second victory over Ruby Little of Marist. Carmel was just 5 seconds behind as she took 3rd with a season’s best time of 18:10.  And while the leaders may have gotten away from Izzy, she kept pulling away from everyone else as she posted a new PR and a 10th place finish. Nicely done!

Caroline Turner was next for South, posting her second fastest time of the year in taking 95th. It was good to see Janisha Patil and Molly Hanlon together for the first half of the race.  Janisha did pull away late to take 117th, with Molly running a season’s best in 130th. The good news is that 33 second gap for 3-5 runners is the tightest these 3 have been all season.  

Pragna Veeravelli was 6th for South in 242nd and the final 4 were all together at the end for another nice kickoff with Landon Layman and Ava Wright hitting new PR’s while Madeline Braley & Gigi Grady both posted season’s bests. That’s 10 runners in the championship with 3 PR’s and 4 SB’s - pretty awesome job ladies!

Not to be outdone were the JV girls, who posted 8 PR’s and 1 season’s best.  Neeti Jain led South in 139th (PR), followed by Jules Min (216 - PR), Arushi Mishra (223 - PR), Kaytlin Stinson (236 - PR) & Sree Pamulapati (243 - PR). You also had PR’s from Lilly Jenkins, Sadie Morgan & Sophia Perrino and a season’s best for Shea Czajkoski.

This is it.  7 teams, top 4 head to state.  Only 7 runners in the varsity race, so this will be the smallest race they’ll be in all year and every place will matter.

The girls will be attempting to defend the title they won last year, but Lambert will be looking to take the crown.  Looking at the virtual meet on Milesplit, they show it as a tie, so the winner will likely come down to who digs deep that last mile and picks off that one extra runner.  But don’t count out Denmark, who has a strong enough 5 to sneak in there if any of the other teams slip up.

The guys race looks to be a battle at the top between West, Lambert & Denmark.  South should qualify for state, but that’s assuming they run at full strength and run to their potential.  They haven’t been at full strength since the meet in AL, so here’s hoping everyone is back and healthy.

See you in Jasper, GA!