North Carolina teams were all over this weekend. Most were either at the Greensboro Invitational or at East Carolina. However, a few teams traveled to Virginia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Results, meet summaries, photo galleries, and videos.
Mooresville is now receiving votes in the Southeast NTN Poll which puts them close to one of their goals. They would like to be ranked eventually and this weekend is a step in that direction. East Forsyth is led by Patrick Crawford who recently ran 16:35 at the Wolfpack Inviational. Following him is Dylan Ferris, the nation's #2 800m runner from last year. This team could be dangerous, but it may not be until Regionals and States.
The NCISAA Preview Meet at McAlpine Park featured most of the top ranked private school teams in the state. All the teams in the NCISAA will head back to McAlpine in one month, October 26th, and do this all over again . . . for a state title. The main difference then is that teams will be competing in their classifications and not all together. Adrianne Soo of Durham Academy and Clay Sankey of Providence Day won the Varsity races. Right now they are the top two ranked private school runners in North Carolina. Results: JV Girls | JV Boys | Varsity Girls | Varsity BoysPhoto Galleries: JV Girls | JV Boys | Varsity Girls | Varsity Boys
Photo: Hendersonville's boys are ranked #6 in 1A. The top teams stayed the same but of course there was a lot of moving around beyond that. Is every team where they belong? No way. It's just a coaches poll. Are most of the top teams mentioned? Yes. Check out the "receiving votes" as well because there could be some top 10 teams sitting just on the outside.
Sixty-four high school teams and eighteen college teams will head to Hagan Stone Park this weekend for the Greensboro Invitational. Teams from Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and North Carolina will all hit up the mostly wooded course. Hagan Stone is not the most spectator friendly course, but it is a favorite of a lot of runners. The course is relatively rolling the entire way and winds mostly through the woods before hitting grass for the final 800 meters. Times are often similar to the well-known McAlpine Park as there are a number of downhills. Attack them and you’ll possibly run a new personal best.
Check out who will be at ECU for the Pirate Invitational. Looks like a very good field.
Coaches have been voting all season on the top 10 in each classification . . . here is the first All-Classification coaches poll. Coaches voted on the top 15 boys and girls teams regardless of classification. The season is about halfway over with, so this seemed like good timing. The 2nd All-Classification poll will come out after the state meets are over in November.
The high school field is loaded with some of the best teams in NC. Add in Science Hill (TN) and a few schools out of Virginia and you've got quite a meet.
September 30th ends the Early Bird Sale for the NC singlets. We are one of the few state in the SE Region who has never represented with a team singlet at the Foot Locker South meet. So this year that's going to change! The singlets are $18 prior to October 1st and $22 up until Foot Locker.
This year’s NCISAA state meet is at McAlpine Park on October 26th. The CISAA coaches were receiving many emails from various teams asking if they could come run in one of the CISAA conference meets. As we, the CISAA coaches, put our heads together, we decided to host the first ever NCISAA Preview Meet. This meet has exploded and is going to be quite an event for a Wednesday at McAlpine Park. There are 23 full teams registered and one team sending an individual, so there will be 24 teams represented at the meet. As you guess, this is a lot of athletes as well. There are approximately 575 set to run one of the 4 planned races.
Will Taylor of Sun Valley and Kimberly Spano are used to winning. Spano has not only won the Freedom Invitational, the Providence Invitational, and now the Charlotte Invitational, but she is last year's 4A defending state champion. Taylor recently won the Union County Champioships, the Varsity Race at the Seahawk Invitational, and like Spano won the Providence Invitational. Both athletes are running extremely well at this point in the season and should be among the favorites in their classifications, Spano in 4A and Taylor in 3A.
As all of us know, comparing times is just about impossible in cross country. Courses vary in difficulty, length, surface, etc. The easiest way to know who the best teams in the state are is to watch them race eachother. Over the past couple weeks we have all been treated to some great meets with some of North Carolina's most talented teams competing against one another. I'd say it has opened some people's eyes as to who is who. With all that said, I'm now going to introduce you all to the NCRunners.com Team Rankings. These team rankings are strictly based off the athletes who have met the NCRunners.com standards and have been entered in the large database. This is why I have increased the NCRunners.com standards to 18:00 for boys and 21:30 for girls. These standards are no longer called "elite". The Milesplit.US Network has elite standards which are universal to the entire network. Check out the NCRunners.com rankings if your aren't sure what I mean.
The 5 Stage 8-Mile Relay was a great event as always. Meet Director Charlie Brown said this was the largest field in this meet's history. There were teams from Virginia, Tennessee, and South Carolina who made the trip to Hagan Stone. Results: Boys Race | Girls Race Photo Gallery: Boys Race | Girls Race | Individual Race | Middle School Race | Awards
This was hyped to be quite a showdown on the boy’s side. Western Albemarle(VA) just received the #3 ranking in the Southeast for the NTN Regional Poll. Broughton and Enloe both were named to the honorable mention list. Then of course you had Chapel Hill, who had represented the SE region at NTN for the last 2 years. The girl’s Championship Race looked to be a battle from two teams from Chapel Hill, East Chapel Hill and Chapel Hill. East Chapel Hill was coming off a very good performance at last week’s Seahawk Invitational, finishing 3rd. ResultsPhoto Gallery - photos taken by CH parent, Arne Johnson Coach Ron Olsen's Recap
The 5 Stage 8-mile Relay has attracted a great field this year. On both sides, it looks like the most competitive field in the meet's history. This meet is called "the most fun you'll have all season" and it truly is unique for North Carolina. Five athletes comprise a team, and each individual races 2500m or 1.55 miles. The Freedom Invitational is known for producing some pretty fast times. This year should be no exception. There are many ranked teams who will be attendance. Looking at the team list, this could give the first clue as to which 4A schools will be coming out of the West Region. Western Carolina University is hosting a meet this weekend for high schools. Right now, there are 13 teams planning to attend, but Coach Williamson is expecting a few more before Saturday. Update: Previews now available
The Adidas Wolfpack invitational looks to be very competitive on both the boys and girls sides. Western Albemarle, of Virginia, is making the trip down and they will meet up with the top 3 ranked 4A boy's teams in the state. it doesn't get much better than that. The individual race should also be a good one as you have two athletes coming off course record setting performances from last week. Both breaking records that were set by Foot Locker Finalists! Chapel Hill's girls will look to prove they belong at the top of the 4A classification. They may have their hands full with the #4 ranked team, East Chapel Hill, the top ranked NCISAA school in Cary Academy, and a couple other 4A schools looking to improve their rankings, Apex & Terry Sanford. Race assignments
This week's Coaches Poll sees some big changes in all of the classifications. The Adidas Seahawk Invitational really shook things up this past weekend, especially among the 4A schools. The next poll in two weeks will have a new twist. Coaches will also be voting on a North Carolina top 15. So coaches, pay attention to all classes! Next weekend, a brand new feature to Milesplit.US & NCRunners.com should help shed some light on the top teams in the state. It is an overall team ranking based on athletes who have met the NCRunners.com standard. Speaking of the standard . . . tonight I went back through all the results up to now and and added in many new performances. The new NCRunners.com standards are 18:00 and 21:30. I'm trying to include more athletes and you will see how it pays off in the team scoring next week.
This weekend's Wolfpack Invitational sponsored by Adidas will feature teams from 4 different states, Maryland, Virginia, New York, and North Carolina. Preview article for the meet coming later this week. Update: Race Assignments now posted
Mooresville's Patrick Campbell has had an outstanding start to the 2007 XC season. First off, he's the #1 runner on the #1 ranked 3A team in North Carolina. Mooresville won it's first state title in school history last year and looks more than ready to win their 2nd in a row. Patrick has run two major races so far and he's finished 3rd in both. Who's beaten him you may ask? Ryan Hill of Hickory has beaten him twice. Hill was the Foot Locker South champion last year as well as the 3A state champ. He has also lost to Taylor Gilland who was one of the top sophomores in the country last year. Finally, the 3rd athlete he has lost to was Luke Lovelace of SC, who also qualified for the Foot Locker finals last year. I'd say that's pretty good company!
See how you can assist in more precise coverage and a more indepth NCRUNNERS.com.
I have seen some of crazy things already in the 2007 season. I'm amazed at how many coaches, athletes, and parents don't seem to know one simple rule . . . The NFHS sets rules that need to be followed. Grab a rule book and make sure you are familiar with the XC rules.
EYE OPENER QUICK STATS: Ryan Hill wins. Mooresville's boys win easily. Roberson's girls take 3rd. Graham Davis wins Invite Race. WILMINGTON QUICK STATS: Nick Graw runs away in last mile. Broughton's boys win, Enloe 2nd. Providence girls defeat Durham School of Arts by 3. Andie Cozzarelli wins, 19:00. Will Taylor wins Varsity boys while Middle Creek takes team title. Danielle Hobbs wins Varsity girls and Providence Day girls take team win by 1 pt. over Sherando(VA). DURHAM ACADEMY QUICK STATS: Both boy's and girl's course records fall. Taylor Gilland runs 16:00 all alone and Michelle Lutz runs 18:45. 2nd places were 16:55 and 20:01. Chapel Hill wins both races. Photos courtesty of Keith Driggers, SCRUNNERS.com
There are 84 high school teams and 26 college teams set to race in Spartanburg, SC on Saturday morning. Many of the teams racing are from North Carolina, including some of NC's best. See who's racing.
With the recent race assignments released, this preview will be a bit different than the boy’s. Inside the article is a look at the Championship race and Varisty race separately. See which teams are running in which races. (boys and girls) Race Assignments: Championship | Varsity Check out the 2006 Seahawk Results
Seahawk Invitational Features Best in NCOf course some of North Carolina’s top runners & teams will be elsewhere this weekend, but wait until you see who is running at UNCW.** Important Note: The boy’s preview was written prior to the race assignments being released. Assignments will be out tomorrow as well as the girl’s preview.
Aron Taylor, the president of BorderChallenge, announced the cancellation of the national meet and regional competitions. BorderChallenge, which was initially set up to rival Nike Team Nationals, but with regional qualifiers, will try to make a comeback in 2008.
The South View boys continued to prove that they are a team to notice. They looked very good winning the Jungle Run with a strong top 7. Their top runners broke 16:20 for 5k. After a recalculation by Coach Autry, Pinecrest and Terry Sanford were tied after 5 athletes. Pinecrest then got the win with a higher placed 6th runner. What a race! Race Videos: Invite Boys | Invite Girls | Championship Boys | Championship Girls