You got the full gambit of weather Saturday morning in Jasper, from a cold and blustery 46 degrees before racing started to warm and sunny by the time the varsity boys ran. And while things may not have gone as planned, for those whose season ended here, I hope you can look back at the progress you’ve made and, perhaps after a few well deserved weeks off, start the work that will ensure a successful season next fall.

I predicted some tight, exciting races on the team side and that is exactly how it played out. There were some great efforts by South and, giving credit where it’s due, by some of the other schools, that led to the way things played out.

The Girls

By the time the varsity girls came around the first corner and passed the spectator area near the half mile mark, it was already shaping up as a 3-way race at the top as Carmel, Izzy and Ashley Thompson of Gainesville had already pulled away from the field. After those three, it was just a dizzying array of Lambert, South and Denmark jerseys. As they came around at the mile, the top 3 were still together. Caroline Turner was sitting among the top ten, with Janisha Patil starting to move up and Molly Hanlon sitting around 20th.  

Heading back out for the 2nd loop, all I knew was there were enough Lambert & Denmark girls inside the top 20 to keep my anxiousness high as I waited at the 2-mile mark. I was happy to see Carmel hit the two mile with a bit of a gap on Ashley, who in turn had a small gap on Izzy. Caroline Turner was holding on, while Janisha had moved inside the top 15 and Molly was up a few spots, but had lost touch with Janisha. Still way too close to call.

Coming around to the final turn and heading to the finish, Carmel had really pulled away as she claimed her first region champion title of her high school career, with a solid 26-second victory. Meanwhile, Izzy had closed the gap on Ashley and was on her shoulder as they made the final turn, but Ashley had the stronger kick and Izzy took 3rd. Watching from that point on, there was no doubt which teams this was a race between, as 14 of the next 15 finishers came from Lambert, Denmark or South. Caroline Turner tied her season’s best as her 20:15 landed her in 11th. Janisha Patil kept moving up, taking 12th, while Molly Hanlon also ran a season’s best, finishing 17th. The good news is that effort was easily good enough to move them on to state. But in an agonizingly close race, it was Lambert that took the Region Championship with 42 points, just beating South at 44, with Denmark taking 3rd with 53 points.

The JV girls had such outstanding performances at Coach Wood, so there’s no way they could top that, right? Think again, as these ladies just keep improving. Ava Wright again led the way for South, with her 19th place finish coming with an unbelievable 50-second PR. Neeti Jain was just behind in 20th, dropping 37 seconds off her PR. I’ve become used to seeing a pack of South girls together and this week it was Landon Layman, Gigi Grady and Madeline Braley, who stayed together basically the entire race. Landon outkicked the group this time around, taking 23rd with a new PR. Gigi was right with her, finishing 24th and just missing a PR with her fastest time of the season. Madeline may not have kicked with them, but her 29th place finish came with a new PR as well. Finishing outside the scoring 5 but closing their seasons with PR’s were Jules Min, Arushi Mishra, Sree Pamulapati and Olivia Hwang.  

The most touching moment of the day also came during the JV girls race, when senior Shea Czajkoski came around the first lap in tears, feeling the emotion of her final high school cross country race. My first reaction was to do my best Tom Hanks impression - “There’s no crying in cross country!” (as I write that, I can’t help but wonder if a high schooler even knows what I’m talking about - if you don’t get that reference, ask your parents). But it certainly speaks to how much these runners become a family and how XC can be such a central part of their high school experience.  

The Boys

The JV boys got things off to a good start for the guys, scoring 7 PR’s.  Rishi Nagappan (PR) led the guys with his 11th place finish, followed by Grant Gibson (PR) in 18th. Thomas Lichtenwalner was 24th, KD Vadlamani 38th & Grant Longstreth (PR) 48th to round out the scoring as South took 5th place as a team. Also scoring PR’s were Matthew Bovenkirk, Kellen Cain, Drew Hunt & Coleman Burch.  Congrats guys - way to finish the season with a bang!

Referring to the varsity boys, my final comment in last week’s newsletter was “here’s hoping everyone is back and healthy.”  Heading into the race, South had Ben Bergey with one leg taped up and Ben Winn nursing a cold, so not necessarily the full health I was anticipating. But when the gun went off, things looked promising, with Nate Verska and Ben B. right with the lead pack as we’ve come to expect and the rest of the South runners in reasonable positions.  

Coming around to the 1st mile, Denmark’s Ethan Ashley, West’s Trent Bell and Nate had separated from the rest of the pack and were starting to pull away. By the second mile, they had dropped Bell and Ashley was a few yards up on Nate. After that, as has been true the past couple of races for Ashley, he surged over that final mile and made sure there was no drama at the finish line as he captured his second straight region title, with Nate finishing 2nd. Ben B. came through in 6th, with the next 11 spots all belonging to Denmark, Lambert & West runners, ensuring the close finish predicted was going to come to fruition. In the end, with an even tighter battle than the girls, Denmark captured the boys title with 53 points, with West (54 pts) in second and Lambert (56 pts) in third.  

Where did that leave South? In the virtual meet on MileSplit, South was predicted to score 92 points. So how many did they score - 92! You had Ben B. a couple spots down from expected, but Ben Winn, despite the cold, landed 19th, just as expected and Adam Zorko’s 32nd place picked up a point. Wyatt Longstreth set a PR taking 33rd, picking up a couple of points to get South back to the 92.  But remember my comment above about credit to some other schools. In this case, I’m talking about Gainesville. They were projected to finish 5th, with their top 5 runners predicted to finish 10, 16, 24, 28 & 32. Instead, they had some runners step up in a big way, finishing 5th, 18th, 21st, 22nd & 24th.  That performance netted Gainesville 90 points and with it the 4th place spot over South and the final berth into State. 

That unexpected result left South shocked and disappointed. Instead of two more weeks of practice leading up to the most important meet of the season, it is an abrupt end to the season for most of the varsity boys. Nate and Ben B., based on finishing in the top 6 overall, qualified for State as individuals, so they move on to the next round. Best of luck to both of them.

Near as I can tell, this is the first time since 2010 that South’s boys have not qualified for state as a team. While it would have been nice to get some of this young team the experience of running at state, hopefully not making it is an extra motivator for the upcoming offseason. One thing I do know - South will be back.

Oddly, you won't currently find info on the State meet on MileSplit - it will show up sometime over the next week, but in the meantime, the details you need are on the GHSA website (https://www.ghsa.net/ghsa-state-cross-country-championships). Because there are 8 different classifications (1A - 7A, with 1A split between private and public schools), the meet occurs across two days with classifications switching up days and times each year.  For this year, 7A will be run Saturday, 11/6, with the boys going at 12:30 p.m. and the girls at 1:15 p.m.

On the girls side, Hillgrove, Harrison & Marietta appear to have both top end strength and the depth needed for a state title, so it would take a huge effort by South to leapfrog them to the top spot. I wouldn’t be surprised if this again becomes a shootout between South and Lambert for the 4th and final podium spot, but schools like Milton, Roswell and North Gwinnett will all be fighting hard to nose their way in. With a much bigger field than at region (212 runners in last year’s girls race), it will be much harder to keep track of where another school’s runners may be, so another case of every spot counts.  Dig deep, ladies, and you can do it!

On the individual side, it’s no secret that Carmel Yonas comes in as the defending champion. And after a season’s best time at Coach Wood followed by an extremely well-executed race on Saturday, she looks to be at the top of her game heading into State. But competition will be fierce as several have been competitive with Carmel head to head this year. Harrison’s Samantha McGarity is just a few seconds off Carmel’s season's best and coming off her own region championship victory, while Ashley Thompson of Gainesville appears to be racing the best she has all season. Others, including the top runners from Marietta, Parkview, Brookwood and Norcross will be threats as well. And let’s not count out Izzy Yonas!

On the boy’s side, Ethan Ashley of Denmark has separated himself a bit these past few weeks and will head to state as the favorite. After him, James May of Marietta, South’s Ben Bergey & Nate Verska and Miles Ferguson of Archer are all within 10 seconds of each other, so will likely be in that front pack trying to make something happen. Hopefully Ben will be back at 100% by then and we know Nate will be looking to end his high school XC career on a high note, so it should be an exciting race.  

I hope many of you will make the drive down to Carrollton. We typically have a big cheering section and it's a great environment. Hope to see you there!