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Eric Gillis (Jesse Carson) opened his season likely knocking off a big goal for the season in setting a new Jesse Carson school record winning Carolinas Kickoff in 15:14.5. His mark broke the school record held by his now coach in Zach Marchinko who ran 15:22 in 2016.
Gillis had strong competition in 9:06 3200m runners in Bryce Cooke (Parkwood) and Adam Haggart (Charlotte Country Day) who ran 15:43 and 15:45 for second and third respectively.
Gillis had confidence built off his summer training taking the race out hard from the gun and never looking back continuing to build on his lead over the course of the race.
The senior ran 9:08 last track season in the 3200m and was 5th at the NCHSAA 3A State Championships. He was 4th at the NCHSAA 3A Cross Country State Championships where he ran his PR of 15:48 at Ivey Redmon.
Gillis won the Carolinas Kickoff in 2024 in 15:56, so opened his 2025 season 42 seconds faster than he did a year ago. He came into the 2025 season 5th in our returning rankings in his NCHSAA 5A classification and proved he's going to be in contention to bring home an individual title this November if he can continue to build off this early season form.
We had Gillis ranked 23rd in our preseason MileSplit NC preseason rankings behind #15 Bryce Cooke and #21 Adam Haggart who he beat today by nearly 30 seconds. He make a statement that he was entirely too low and amongst the top tier of North Carolina runners with his 2025 debut!