The No. 9 team on our cross country pre-season countdown are the Imps of Cary!
Coming off a 4th place finish at the 2020 NCHSAA 4A cross country state meet, this Imp squad returns five of their top seven, including all-state runner James Elkan. Elkan, who ran ranked No. 10 in our individuals countdown, is ready to lead this Imp squad to a podium finish in 2021.
Cary may have one of the best 1-2 punches in the state with junior Jonathan Crouse joining Elkan. Crouse ran 16:09 over 5000m last season and was 11th in the 4A Mideast Regional. We only saw him twice during track season so it ill be interesting to see where his fitness over 5000m will be in the coming weeks.
Senior leadership will be a strength for this team as four of their top five will all be running their final season of cross country. Matthew Martin was only five spots behind Crouse at the 2020 NCHSAA 4A XC state meet, so a breakout season from him can give Cary a deadly 1-2-3 combination. The two other key seniors on this squad are Sammy Passiglia and Bennett Perry.
This team has a history of racing up to the moment, and with a team full of seniors, anything can happen at the state meet.
| Cary (NC) | 594 | |||
| 1) James Elkan | 15:54.74 | 7 | ||
| 2) Jonathan Crouse | 16:09.73 | 18 | ||
| 3) Matthew Martin | 16:55.55 | 119 | ||
| 4) Sammy Passiglia | 17:24.71 | 196 | ||
| 5) Bennett Perry | 17:41.89 | 254 | ||
| Average Time: 16:49.32 Total Time: 1:24:06.62 1-5 Split: 1:47.15 | ||||
| 6) James Reading | 18:29.14 | 430 | ||
| 7) Luke Liming | 18:51.26 | 549 | ||