Carmen Alder (Pinecrest) burst onto the high school scene this fall in the first big meet of the year, the Providence Invitational where she won over strong competition in 18:33 despite taking a wrong turn over the race.
The next big meet for her was at the adidas XC Challenge where you saw her with the lead girl Victoria Starcher (Ripley, WV) going up the hill the first time, but as they got to the top she began to suffer and had a rough second half of the race. Alder still clocked 18:42 taking 10th overall.
That performance left some questions as to where Alder was at fitness wise, but she ended any doubts about that yesterday. Alder clocked an 18:15 winning the Greensboro Invitational by 10 seconds over defending champion Katherine Dokholyan (Chapel Hill).
The freshman joins pretty solid company on the Greensboro Invitational All-Time list sitting behind some on NC's best distance runners in recent history.
| RANK | TIME | ATHLETE/TEAM | GRADE | MEET DATEPLACE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17:50.50 | 2013 | ||
| 2 | 17:50.90 | 2017 | ||
| 3 | 17:56.18 | 2015 | ||
| 4 | 18:13.50 | 2016 | ||
| 5 | 18:15.14 | 2021 |
Alder said this is likely her final big meet until regionals and states, but she definitely proved that she's going to be in the mix for a NCHSAA 4A Individual Title this fall. Currently Natalie Tyner (Laney) holds the NCHSAA 4A & State Lead with a 17:40 and is certainly the favorite at this point in the season.
Dokholyan took 2nd overall in the field also having a bounce back performance after an off day at adidas. Dokholyans 18:25 was her second fastest time in her high school career and 30 seconds faster than last year where she won the meet. She lead Chapel Hill to a team title over Hidden Valley, VA with 60 team points.
