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Lily Gearing -
Nealeigh Broadwell -
Reese Vandegriff
The White County High School cross country teams took part in a huge meet last weekend in Fairburn, competing in the Alexander/Asics Invitational.
The meet, held at Chattahoochee Hills, featured 17 high school races and a college division race. The WCHS teams competed in the Class 1-3A division.
“The course mirrored something they will see at state,” WCHS head coach Carrie Vandegriff said. “We ran all four races in the heat of the day and our kids showed up and raced hard. The girl's finished second and we had three girls medal in the Top 15. Both of our JV girls medalled, as well.”
The Lady Warriors placed three runners in the Top15 to finish second among 16 teams in the race. Mary Persons finished first with 46 points, followed by WCHS with 112. Paideia (114), Fideles Christian School (142) and Tallulah Falls (178) rounded out the the first five in the team standings.
Nealeigh Broadwell led the way for the Lady Warriors with a sixth place finish among 128 runners. Broadwell posted a time of 22:03. Reese Vandegriff was eighth at 22:08, and Lily Gearing was 12th at 22:24. Emma Lightsey was 36th with a time of 24:17, and Lydia Davidson was 81st at 27:09.
In the boy's race, the Warriors were 12th among 21 teams. Southeast Bulloch (66), Paideia (93), Darlington (113), Banks County (124), and Pike County (131) made up the top five in the team standings.
Lance Kelley was 59th among 150 runners with a time of 19:54. Wyatt Pilgrim was 72nd with a time of 20:16, and Cole Gearing was 79th at 20:41. Aiden Pickett was was 83rd at 20:56, and Trevor Butler broke into the Top 100, finishing 92nd at 21:13, and Bryce Whitlark had a time of 21:44.
JV races
The Lady Warriors had a pair of runners compete in the junior varsity race, and both finished in the Top 15 to earn a medal. Lydia Durden was seventh with a time of 30:45, while Brianna Bilhovde was 10th at 32:19.
In the boy's JV race, Jackson Judice was 20th with a time of 22:34, Isaac Sosebee was 31st at 24:01, Wyatt Churchwell was 38th at 25:22, Jesse Johnson was 39th at 25:25, Colin Fernandez was 48th at 27:59, and Levi Foster was 50th at 28:06.
Mountain Invitational
The Warriors were ready to host the annual Mountain Invitational today at Unicoi State Park, but the wet weather forced the event to be postponed until Tuesday, Oct. 12.
The race kicks off at 3 p.m. with the middle school races, followed by the junior varsity races at 4 p.m. The varsity races end the day, beginning at 5 p.m.
According to the WCHS coaching staff, the race field won't be as big as originally planned due to the postponement and West Hall hosting a race on the same day, but they expect it to be a competitive event.
“I think everybody in our region other than Cherokee Bluff will be here,” Vandegriff said. “Even West Hall's boys are coming instead of running in their own race. We didn't mean to stack it on top of the West Hall meet, but when we met with the the Unicoi people, we had to have a makeup day, and that's the day. We aren't afraid to run in the ran, we'll run in a hurricane, but we talked about it and thought it was best to postpone it.”
“About a third of the teams aren't coming, but it's still going to be a pretty large meet with a very competitive field,” WCHS assistant coach Megan Runkle said. “The region teams are still coming because they want to get on the course with the region meet coming up (Oct. 28)."