Cross Country Update - Week 8

Athletics

10/11/2022

Our Wildcats continue to improve as they enter the home stretch and prepare for championship races!

With one meet postponed from Saturday to Tuesday because of hurricane Ian, this week was a busier than expected week for cross country. Both the middle school and varsity teams travelled to Milledgeville on Tuesday for the Braves Invitational. Because of the move from the weekend, it was a smaller meet than expected but still included almost 20 teams. The Wildcats almost swept the meet.

The middle school girls won their race with 4 girls in the top 10 and 5 in the top 15. The girls were led by Emma Jordan (2nd) whose 13:59 two mile was a new MS girls cross country school record. Kate Tracy (3rd), Molly Bramhall (4th), Zoey Bramhall (8th), and Mahala Hubley (14th) rounded out the girls top 5 finishers.

The middle school boys finished second as a team with Charlie Campbell (2nd) and Caleb Lambert (3rd) posting top 5 finishes and a big PR by Jace Romero who finished 15th. Four middle school girls and 8 middle school boys set PRs at this meet.

Kassidy Watson was again the only girl in the varsity girl’s race, so we did not receive a team score, but help is on the way, with several girls joining the team at the conclusion of volleyball. We expect to have a full team of girls for the region meet on October 18.

The varsity boys won for a second time in less than a week, with Adam Lippe as the overall winner followed by Lucas Johnson (7th), Christian Vitacco (9th), Brooks Johnson (12th) and Patrick Joiner (19th).

The middle school teams had a league meet on Friday at EDS. During the season, these league meets are not officially time or scored, but the girls were led by Kate Tracy, Emma Jordan, and Kaylee Charles Finch who was racing for the first time after a mid-season injury. Though unscored, the girls easily won the meet, claiming 5 of the top 8 places. The boys were led by Charlie Campbell and Caleb Lambert who both finished in the top 10.

On Saturday, the Varsity runners made a third trip over the Savannah River for the annual battle at Fox Creek. The boys were looking to make it 3 wins in a row for this season as well as a third consecutive win at Fox Creek, having won there in 2020 and 2021. They were also looking to avenge the early season 2-point loss to the Augusta Eagles. Despite having 3 Wildcats in the top 6, led by Adam Lippe (2nd), the Eagles would again prove too strong and the Wildcats would have to settle for a 2nd place finish. In the girl’s race, the team was happy to have two more girls this week (Joliene Romero and Kyla King) but were still one short of having a full team and receiving a team score. Molly Bramhall led the girls, setting a big PR (22:27) and finishing 4th overall.

The varsity travels to Macon on Wednesday to First Presbyterian Day School to get a preview of the course where the state meet will be held. The middle school will be away this week at various sites for outdoor classroom but will race on Saturday at the state championship meet in Cochran.