On a temperate, sunny Saturday morning, the Girls Cross Country team traveled to Jefferson Georgia for the 2018 North Georgia Championships. Hosted by East Jefferson High School, 18 teams from across the state converged at Lamar Murphy Park on Saturday, August 28. Despite missing several top runners due to injury and to those taking the SAT, the Lady Raiders finished 8th out of 18 teams in a very strong field.
Senior Elizabeth Smith and Sophomore Kylie Rincon led the way for the Lady Raiders finishing 26th and 27th overall. Freshman Nina Ouellette charged to 37th overall.
The JV also had a great day finishing 5th out of 18 schools. Freshman Anna Edmundson crossed the finish line at 27:02.
Girls Cross Country Head Coach Isaac Seals was very upbeat about the squad's performance. "This team has a chance to really make some noise at the State Meet; we just plain compete with this line-up from top to bottom. Several of our top runners were out and we made no excuses - our younger girls just stepped up. Kylie Rincon continues to impress me and she is still just learning the ropes of high school XC. Lizzie [Elizabeth Smith] ran like a senior captain. I'm really feeling good about this group, and I like what I see from all of our first year runners."
Congratulations to Freshman Blake Solomon for being named the Lady Raiders XC Runner of the Week.
The team next competes as a split squad on Saturday, September 8. The Varsity heads to Carrollton to preview the State course, while the JV heads over to Marist for the vaunted Coach Benson Double Dip.
View or download the Girls Cross Country 2018 Schedule
Lady Raiders North Georgia Championship Top 10:
22:13 Elizabeth Smith
22:15 Kylie Rincon
22:58 Nina Ouellette
24:04 Allison Leffler
24:22 Blake Solomon
24:25 Olivia Novotny
25:38 Lily Hodges
25:46 Renee Al-Noubani
26:07 Martha Ross
26:34 Olivia Pryor