The Boys & Girls XC teams traveled to Douglasville for the Bob Blastow Early Bird Invitational on Saturday, August 24 and faced some first-rate competition. The Lady Raiders finished 7th overall and Owen McDaniel ran a personal best for the Varsity Boys team.
Bob Blastow Early Bird Invitational
Foxhall Sporting Club, Douglasville
Saturday, August 24, 2013
GIRLS RESULTS
Led by the young trio of Sophomore Anna Hayden (5th place overall), Freshman Elizabeth Graves (20th) and Sophomore Anna Walker (46th), the Lady Raiders Varsity cross-country team started off the season taking 7th Place against top competition at the Bob Blastow Early Bird Invitational.
Juniors Meg Oberholtzer and Maggie Duncan, along with Senior Rachel Gill and Freshman Madison McQuary also ran well, but it was the performance of Hayden and Graves that was the talk of the day. While Walker was expected to run well after her strong freshman season, Hayden and Graves provided quite a pleasant surprise for Coach Seals. While watching Hayden battle for 5th in her first Varsity cross-country event, Coach Seals excitedly exclaimed, "who saw this coming?"
With the strong showing at the Early Bird, the Lady Raiders are currently ranked second in the Region, and are in good position to return to the State Meet. (Note: only the top four schools from Region 7-AAAAA advance to State).
BOYS RESULTS
Junior Owen McDaniel ran a personal best (17:35) to lead all Raider runners.
Senior co-captain Sam Morris and Junior Alec Nathan, the other two returning Varsity runners, finished second and fourth for Riverwood; Senior co-captain Simeon Ike was third. A pair of Sophomores, Mark Shutley and Willie Herrigel saw their first Varsity action for Coach Griffith.
The 2013 campaign presents a challenge: not only must Coach Griffith replace four runners from last season – including the top two runners - but the returning runners must improve upon their performance of a year ago if the Raiders are to make it to the State Meet. (Note: only the top four schools from Region 7-AAAAA advance to State; the Varsity Boys missed fourth place by only ten points in 2012)
In other boys races on Saturday, Sophomore Oswaldo Fernandez finished 10th overall in the JV race and Sophomore Neil Ryden came in 20th in the Open Boys event. The coaching staff has two weeks to tweak the line-up and determine the newcomers who can provide solid scoring throughout the season. The early rankings have the young Raider program ranked 5th in Region 7-AAAAA.
With no meet scheduled over the Labor Day weekend, both teams will get to test themselves against some of the top State and Region runners when they compete in the Coach Benson, Marist Double Dip on Saturday September 7, 2013.
