The adidas XC Challenge is perhaps the biggest meet of the invitational season, and the Championship races surely did not disappoint. The performances we witnessed on Saturday have whet the appetites of our fans and athletes for what's to come in the remainder of the season!
Girls Recap
The girl who's been dominating the NC running scene once again broke the tape against a field of strong runners. Although Nevada Mareno's (Leesville Road) winning time of 17:44 was not a PR, her consistency in the mid-17's and her ability to out-challenge her competitors each race indicates that when all the honing is done and she's at her peak, we're going to see a jaw-dropping performance. Mareno didn't have command over the field over the entire course, however. Libby Davidson of Virginia's EC Glass and Anna Vess of AC Reynolds also toyed with the lead position, but when it came down to the last half of the race it was in the hands of Mareno. Davidson and Vess finished out the race finished out the 5k race with 2nd and 3rd places in 17:59 and 18:20, respectively.
North Carolina was well represented in the team scoring, with each of the top four schools coming from NC's Triangle region. Riverside took an overwhelming win over runner-up Chapel Hill. Leesville Road and Cardinal Gibbons took claim over the next two team spots. All four of the schools showed strong traits as a team that will prove beneficial to them down the line when it comes to the championship season. Both Chapel Hill and Cardinal Gibbons demonstrated excellent pack-running execution, with all five scorers finishing within 40 seconds of one another. Leesville's strength was shown in their speedy average time of 19:09 (only four seconds behind that of Riverside), but with their number-one girl as a major outlier, the Pride fell victim to a large gap between there first and fifth scorers. It's also worth noting that both Cardinal Gibbons and Leesville Road could be adding another top-5 runner into the mix in the coming weeks; the Crusaders were missing Sophie Ebihara in this race, while G'Jasmyne Butler is still working her way back into 5K fitness for the Pride after a long summer of track competiion.
Boys Recap
The remarkable performance of the day on the boys' side came from Connor Lane of Cardinal Gibbons. The junior ran the first and only sub-15 minute time in NC so far this season, and his time of 14:59 was also a 46-second PR; a noteworthy performance, to say the least! Following close behind was Jeremy Brown of Broughton with a 15:08. With a PR of 14:57, Brown was the favorite going into Saturday's race...predicting 4A favorites won't be so easy now! The Weddington duo of Matthew Connor and Mitchell Resor finished out the top four, and Cleveland's Gable Dershem took the remaining top-5 spot.
A number of other top runners took advantage of the blistering pace up front to set new PR's. That includes Connor McDonald (East Chapel Hill), who continues to run very well this fall, as well as Ben Savino (Apex), who dropped 20 seconds off the PR that he set just last Friday.
Georgia's Marietta High School took the team title, just 8 points out of reach of the Broughton boys. Marietta's strength came from its tightly packed runners 1-5, but if they are to lose a member of their top 5 due to illness or injury, their performance as a team may be doomed; the team's sixth runner finished over 70 places behind the fifth runner, so their team score could easily take a beating. NC's Weddington high school finished out the top-3 team scoring for another respectable showing. In an interesting preview of a battle that could be pivotal in the 4A state meet, Green Hope and Cardinal Gibbons ended up virtually tied; the Falcons scored 218 points to edge the Crusaders by 2. Both of those teams have aspirations to make the top 5 in November, so stay tuned to that developing rivalry!
Also, don't think we didn't notice the strong performance by the Providence boys in the Invitational race. The Panthers would have been the 7th-best NC team in the Championship race, and they sported an improving 1:05 split from 1st to 5th runner.