South Georgia preps start cross country season in Freedom Park

You can't see the state line dividing Georgia and Florida. It's a legal entity, with origins in the 200-year-old Treaty of San Lorenzo, negotiated between the United State of America and the Empire of Spain. Andrew Ellicott was supposed to survey the boundary, but he ran into Muskogean speakers who were hostile to the notion that their land was being divvied up by two outside parties. Ellicott built a mound at the headwaters of the St. Marys River, declared that the boundary ran from there to the confluence of the Flint and the Chattahoochee Rivers, then went home. Nearly a century went by before the politicians and the lawyers were done disputing the location of the invisible line.


Between the Flint and the St Marys there isn't a wall or a mountain range or an expanse of water marking the border between Georgia and Florida. Nevertheless, if you were on the Florida side of the line on Saturday morning, 16 August 2014, then you were still waiting for high school cross-country season to begin, weeks ahead. But if you were on the Georgia side, your wait was over. In Freedom Park north of Valdosta, Georgia, the season was very much under way at Valdosta High's Wildcat Cross Country Invitational.


The Wildcats played rude hosts in the first interscholastic event, the high school boys 5K. That 3.1-mile race around the park started at 8:00 AM, right after a community 5K. Scoring 29 points, the Valdosta boys opened their 2014 cross country season with a win, as did their top runner, sophomore Matthew Baun. Running 18:01, Baun finished nearly 400 meters ahead of Upson Lee's first runner, senior Feybian Matthews (2nd, 19:17). The Upson Lee Knights took second in the team standings with 42 points, with the Lee County Trojans scoring 58 to place third. The Pelham Hornets had only three athletes in the race, two short of the minimum five needed for a team score.


2014 Wildcat Cross Country Invitational Team Standings, High School Boys

1. Valdosta, 29 points
2. Upson Lee, 42
3. Lee County, 58
4. Pelham, NTS

Top Ten High School Boys 5K, 2014 Wildcat Cross Country Invitational

1. 18:00.60 ~ M​atthew Baun (Va​ldo​sta) 10
2. 19:16.20 ~ Feybian M​atthe​ws (Upson Lee) 12
3. 19:47.30 ~ Deshon​ Taylor (Va​ldo​sta) 9
4. 20:06.20 ~ Sam​ad Mil​ls (Lee County) 9
5. 20:14.30 ~ Colby Jon​es (Lee County) 9
6. 20:25.90 ~ Jon​as Brokmann (Va​ldo​sta) 10
7. 20:33.70 ~ Kolby​ Sch​adenburg (Upson Lee) 11
8. 20:36.30 ~ A​ustin Hor​nsby (Pelham) 11
9. 20:44.60 ~ Jake​ Sayer (Upson Lee) 12
10. 20:45.10 ~ Noah Richa​rds (Va​ldo​sta) 9

At 8:30 AM the high scool girls' 5K followed the boys' race. This time Upson Lee would take the team title. Led by Abigail Manley's 23:47 first place finish, the Knights put all five of their scorers in the top eleven to total a winning 35 points. Monica Webb of Pelham finished runner-up in 23:59, but Valdosta put their first five runners across the line while Pelham was still waiting for their fourth, giving the Wildcats 52 points and second place. Pelham was third with 59 points. Lee County had strong performances by sophomore Ansley Cain (3rd, 24:26) and frosh Ramsay Miller (4th, 24:30), but the Trojans didn't have enough finishers to have a team score.


Valdosta, Pelham, and Lee County are scheduled to meet again on Saturday morning, 23 August 2014, at the Pelham High Hornet Invitational. The Valdosta High girls are the defending champions in their race at the Hornet Invite.


2014 Wildcat Cross Country Invitational Team Standings, High School Girls

1. Upson Lee, 35 points
2. Valdosta, 52
3. Pelham, 59
4. Lee County, NTS

Top Ten High School Girls 5K, 2014 Wildcat Cross Country Invitational

1. 23:46.60 ~ Abigail Manley (Upson Lee) 11
2. 23:58.10 ~ Monica Webb (Pelham) 9
3. 24:25.60 ~ A​nsley Cain (Lee County) 10
4. 24:29.50 ~ Ra​msay Miller (Lee County) 9
5. 25:20.20 ~ Leah Michael (Valdosta) 12
6. 25:27.40 ~ McKenzie Sm​ith (Pelham) 11
7. 25:40.00 ~ M​adeline M​athis (Valdosta) 10
8. 25:43.70 ~ S​ydney Uphold (Upson Lee) 11
9. 25:50.40 ~ Perla Herna​ndez (Upson Lee) 12
10. 25:51.80 ~ Lauren Mewbourne (Upson Lee) 10

Hisham Heikal and Carson Locke took the first two places for the Viking Runners in the middle school boys' mile-and-a-half race, running 9:20 and 9:22. After Andrew Carauna took sixth in 10:20, the Vikings' team prospects looked good. But Lee County also put three runners in the top ten--Reese Fye (4th, 9:51.6), Ben Phillips (9th, 10:56), and Daniel Gyorfi (10th, 11:10). In the end, the team championship was decided by only a single point, with the Viking Runners narrowly prevailing over Lee County, 38 to 39. Valdosta Middle School was a close third with 48 points.


2014 Wildcat Cross Country Invitational Team Standings, Middle School Boys

1. Viking Runners Club, 38 points
2. Lee County Middle School, 39
3. Valdosta Middle School, 48
4. Pelham Middle School, 103

Top Ten Middle School Boys 1-1/2 Mile, 2014 Wildcat Cross Country Invitational

1. 9:19.9 ~ Hisham Heikal (Viking Runners)
2. 9:21.1 ~ Carson Locke (Viking Runners)
3. 9:44.8 ~ Jordan Massey (Upson Lee)
4. 9:51.6 ~ Reese Fye (Lee County)
5. 10:17.6 ~ Crane McAllister (Valdosta) 8
6. 10:20.0 ~ Andrew Caruana (Viking Runners)
7. 10:32.8 ~ Noah Strom (Upson Lee) 8
8. 10:39.1 ~ Drew Stubbs (Valdosta)
9. 10:55.5 ~ Ben Phillips (Lee County) 7
10. 11:09.5 ~ Daniel Gyorfi (Lee County) 7

The Viking Runners Club also took the first two spots in the middle school girls mile-and-a-half, with Kelsey Morse and Eryn Wilkey going one-two in 9:35 and 10:49. But the Vikings had no other runners in the top ten, and Lee County had four, starting with third place finisher Sheridan Lowry at 11:20, and including Kayla Early (5th 11:41), Caroline Taylor (7th, 12:02), and Vicki Roberts (9th, 12:14). When Vanessa Favela-Parra (17th, 14:01) crossed the finish line for Lee County, her team had 37 points and the Wildcat Invitational team title. Valdosta Middle School was second with 44 points, and the Viking Runners third with 50.


2014 Wildcat Cross Country Invitational Team Standings, Middle School Girls

1. Lee County Middle School, 37 points
2. Valdosta Middle School, 44
3. Viking Runners Club, 50
4. Pelham Middle School, 89

Top Ten Middle School Girls 1-1/2 Mile, 2014 Wildcat Cross Country Invitational

1. 9:34.7 ~ Kelsey Morse (Viking Runners)
2. 10:48.4 ~ Eryn Wilkey (Viking Runners)
3. 11:19.7 ~ Sheridan Lowry (Lee County) 7
4. 11:20.8 ~ Zowie Curry (Upson Lee) 8
5. 11:40.7 ~ Kayla Early (Lee County) 7
6. 11:47.7 ~ Sophia Noll (Valdosta)
7. 12:01.8 ~ Caroline Taylor (Lee County) 7
8. 12:09.3 ~ Rachel Massengil (Valdosta) 8
9. 12:13.3 ~ Vicki Roberts (Lee County) 7
10. 12:15.4 ~ Raquel Goddard (Valdosta)

Links

• Complete results of the 2014 Wildcat XC Invitational, courtesy of A Course/Line, LLC
  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/108lRlrfAObqwCYCMfm94Ug7j6-jQ4PDC3Nk50fAdlxY/pubhtml
  
  
• "'Cross Country is Fun,' so fun that Kelly and Smith are back for a second year"
  http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2014/08/xc-is-fun-2014.html
  
  
• More upcoming cross-country, track, road, ultra-running, and even a few of those triathlon things
  http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/search/label/calendar?max-results=1

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