What’s Happening Around the State

The biggest race of the weekend was the Seahawk Invitational at UNC-Wilmington.  From our immediate competition (that is, the 4A West region) the main entry was Ardrey Kell.  Their boys were second, pretty far (53-94) behind Cardinal Gibbons, which is apparently really good right now.  They did beat Cary and Green Hope by good margins, and were way ahead of South View.  SV is puzzling, as they were second in the state last year, have almost everyone back and a good coach, and haven’t looked great so far.  They were missing one of their top two, so that’s clearly a factor.  Madison Souder of Ardrey Kell won the individual race in 16:10 on what is usually a moderately fast course if if isn’t wet.

For the girls, Ardrey Kell got third, close behind Carrboro and WAAAYYY behind Green Hope (23-71-79).  Based on two races so far, Sydney Foreman is well ahead of Kaitlyn Kramer for Kell – a switch from last year, but not a complete shock based on how well Foreman ran at the end of track.  As for Green Hope, there were some hopeful signs for those of us with goals of winning state … if you look really hard.  Their second runner only ran 18:58.  Their fifth runner was at 19:20, and it was nearly a minute back to sixth from there.  Their first JV runner only ran 20:24, and they could not get seven JV runners under 21:00.

T.C. Roberson went to the Eye Opener in Spartanburg SC and seemed to do fairly well.  This course is not as fast as places like Wilmington or McAlpine.  (Also, this meet calls the best race “International” and the next level “Championship”.)  The girls got third, and Brooke Gordon was second in 18:50 (first and third were from Science Hill HS in Johnson City.)  The boys were a close second, which is extremely impressive since Cole Rains did not run.

Broughton (which won both boys and girls at the WNC Carnival) went to the 5-Stage relay in Greensboro.  This race is not as big as it used to be, and there are no individual results so it is hard to tell  much.  But the boys averaged 5:00 miles for their race, and the girls broke the course record by 91 seconds.  That record was held by Cardinal Gibbons, which is always good, so that was probably pretty impressive.