Broughton's Reidy Jones and Apex's Kersie Jhabvala prove to be fastest on the day at the Kickoff Classic held on WakeMed course.
Last year Reidy Jones placed 2nd overall in 9:10 at the Kickoff Classic and then went on to a 4th place finish at the 4A state meet. In the 2009 Kickoff, in order for Reidy to win he had to knock off a couple of other top 4A contenders in Bryan Spreitzer and Mohamed Abushouk. Mohamed looks to be this year's favorite but finished 12 seconds off the pace today. Green Hope's Spreitzer finished 2nd in 9:09 and is looking to prove himself this year in XC. Bryan was running very well early last year but then missed the majority of the season with an injury.
In the girl's race, Jhabvala won by 10 seconds over Lauren Strapp of Leesville Road. Kersie only finished 35th at last year's 4A state meet but with her Kickoff performance looks to be in much better shape as the season gets underway. For Strapp, this her second 2nd place finish in the last 2 years and she also matched her time of 11:12 from last year.
This year's meet was scored, unlike the past. In the Varsity Boys race, Sanderson won with 59 points over Broughton and Green Hope who scored 73. The Varsity Girls race saw Green Hope place 4 in the top 9 and 6 in the top 14 to run away with the team victory. GH scored 42 and Cary, who also turned in a solid team performance, scored 59. Cary placed 3 in the top 10.
The JV Boys race had Broughton taking the team title by 7 points over Cary, 65 to 72. The girls JV race had Green Hope also winning again, by 10 points over Athens Drive, 61 to 71.
I believe the JV race is for 9th & 10th graders and the Varsity race is for 1th & 12th graders. None the less, check out these links and get a look at the team scores if they were combined races.