Wildcats get faster in their annual drive to finish the season strong.
This past Saturday, the Wildcats traveled north to Gainesville, GA to
participate in the Coach Wood Invitational, which is the most competitive
XC meet in Georgia. The Varsity girls started the day strong with a 13th
place finish (out of 28 teams) against the top powers in the state. The
girls were the 2nd 5A school to finish, and this helps to shape some great
goals for the team over the next few weeks. The race was highlighted by strong performances from Ansley Heavern, Ann-Marie Sills, Jennifer
Hardister, and Sydney Drew. The JV girls followed up by participating in
the JV Championship race. The Wildcats surprised the field with an
impressive 7th place team finish (out of 26 teams), and were the first 5A
school to finish. The girls were led by an awesome race by Samantha Cameron, who took home a medal for her 4th place finish. She was helped out by tremendous races from Emma Nortje, Julie Hensley, Chloe Thomas, and Emily Cyr.
The boys laced it up in the afternoon and were led first by the JV boys, who ran some fast times in the JV-C race. They were led by Max Marion, and great performances were turned in by Drew D'Alessandro, Gerardo Romero, and Ian Kelley. The boys Varsity was our last team to race, but had one of their best "pack" races of the season. They were led by a great race from Blake Tiede, and the race also saw great performances from Jackson Watson and Noah Doherty. Along with a great day of racing, many of the Wildcats got to meet 2-time Olympian Andrew Wheating and have their picture taken with him. He also got to meet Willard the Wildcat, sign him, and have his picture taken with Willard!
This week is the last week of our "regular" season, as our Region Championships are this Saturday. If the Varsity teams place in the Top 4 on Saturday, they will qualify for the State Championships in on November 9th, but this will be the last week of the season for our JV runners. Our Region Championships will be held at Druid Hills Middle School, and because Dunwoody is co-hosting this meet with Lakeside, there will be NO bus to this meet, so runners are responsible for providing their own
transportation on Saturday. The race times are as follows:
- 9:00 AM - Varsity Girls (Top 7)
- 9:30 AM - Varsity Boys (Top 7)
- 10:00 AM - JV Girls (All remaining runners)
- 10:30 AM - JV Boys (All remaining runners)
- 11:00 AM - Awards Ceremony
Thank you in advance if you have volunteered to help assist with this meet, as we are in charge of meet administration. I will be sending out some information later this week for our volunteers.
Finally, two notes about practice this week. First, there will be NO
PRACTICE on Tuesday, as the coaches have parent-teacher conferences in the
afternoon. Secondly, it is the first-ever "Spirit Week" for Dunwoody
Cross Country! Each day will have a different theme, and runners are
encouraged to dress up to practice representing that theme. Monday is
Animal Day! Please keep in mind that you still have to be able to RUN in
your costume! Stay tuned to the Dunwoody XC twitter feed for reminders of
each day's theme.
Thanks for your continued support, and Go Wildcats!