On Tuesday, most of the Wildcats participated in the first DeKalb County meet at Druid Hills Middle School. Bus delays could not distract the Wildcats from attacking the course, and the boys were led by team captain Owen Firebaugh and Noah Doherty, while the girls first finishers were team captain Brook Joyner and Shanel Stewart. Congratulations to the many Wildcats who completed their first ever cross country race, now let's get faster! The 8th graders also competed in the 2-mile JV race, and were paced by Max Marion and Samantha Cameron, respectively. Thanks also to all of the parents for their attendance, support, and flexibility on Tuesday!
On Saturday, the Wildcats traveled to Berry College in Rome, GA for the Clara Bowl Invitational, one of the big early season events on the Georgia cross country calendar. Similar to last year, the girls faced some tough competition in the 5A-6A Girls Varsity event, but raced to a 3rd place finish (out of 33 teams), and were the first 5A team across the line. The
girls performance was highlighted by Ann-Marie Sills, who took more than 2 minutes off of her time from last year's Clara Bowl meet. The strength of the Wildcats on this day, however was the 4-5-6 finishes of Ellie Conoley, team captain Jennifer Hardister, and team captain Elizabeth Hardister, which contributed greatly to the Wildcats promising finish. The boys followed up with a great early season performance as well, finishing 21st out of 35 teams in the 5A-6A event. Similar to the girls, many of the boys improved upon their times from last year by a large margin, including Cadmiel Velazquez, team captain Noah Goldstein, and team captain Quinton Johnson. We are excited and encouraged about some of the improvements the boys team can make throughout the season. Full race results can be found
at:
http://ga.milesplit.com/meets/138712-berry-college-clara-bowl-invitational#.UiMvhr-IolI
This week, there are two team events on the calendar. On Thursday, we will have our annual Chick-Fil-A Spirit Night at Perimeter Pointe from 5-8 PM. This is one of our most successful fundraisers every year, so please plan on eating with us (and bringing your friends and family) on Thursday, as a portion of sales during these hours will be donated to the Wildcat XC Booster Club. Plan to be entertained by the nugget eating contest and milkshake drinking contest! Which class will prevail? We'll have to wait until Thursday night to see! Hope to see many of you there!
On Saturday, the Wildcats will stay close to home to travel to the Marist Double Dip Invitational. Each team will field a Varsity squad (7 runners) and a JV squad (10 runners). There will be no bus to this meet, so students and athletes must get to the meet on their own. A list of the who is running in this race and more information regarding this meet will
be announced in practice on Wednesday, and posted on the website soon thereafter.
There is no practice on Monday, so we will see all of the runners on Tuesday afternoon for practice. Go Wildcats!"