Cuthbertson Middle School's Madeline Hill and Leah Helms have certainly been dominant over 3000 meters this fall dominating every meet they're ran and posting some pretty eye opening times. Last week after watching them run at the NC Middle School Championships I thought they might be able to possibly break 19 on a good day. But they certainly exceeded those expectations.
Hill and Helms raced with a group of local middle schoolers in the 7th Annual Big South 5k Road Race today. They came into the race with no expectations, but just wanted to test how they would fair running at their normal 3k pace through 3000 meters and seeing what happened after that. Their goals of going out at 5:50 pace didn't go as planned and they went through the first two miles in 6:10 and 6:07 respectively. But this seems to have not taken a toll on these girls as they finished a blazing fast last mile of 5:32! This led both girls to cross the line in 18:22!
18:22 would rank them 7th and 8th in the All-Class High School rankings this season! They were the 5th and 6th female finishers in the race at just 13 years old! Sedona Dancu of Covenent Day, who is the same grade as Helms and Hill, was not too far behind running 18:36!
Hill will run Junior Olympic XC with local club Fit 180 and Helms will shut everything down to begin her basketball season. We will certainly be in for a show the next few years as these girls transition into high school running!
You can find full results from the Big South 5k Road Race here. And an interview after the NC Milddle School XC Championships performance last weekend below.