Maya Tang opens the season with a win at the ARPXC Invitational

There are always a few walkers in a cross-country race. One group of girls was walking near the back of the middle school girls' 3K at the ARPXC Invitational at Tallahassee, Florida's Apalacheee Regional Park on Thursday afternoon, 30 August 2018. A storm was rolling in, though, and the wind picked up. After one gust, there was a crash back in the woods as a branch fell.


The girls started running.


"That was a tree falling!" one shrieked.

Maya Tang

There were no downed trees, but the wind was strong enough that the rain stung. The last time I was out in a storm that intense, it had been named by the National Hurricane Center. The boys' 3K was canceled. But the girls finished their race, and Maya Tang finished first. The Deerlake eighth-grader ran 12:52 crossing the line before the arrival of the storm. The Swift Creek Middle School girls had the top team in the race, scoring a winning 36 points.


The sky was starting to look threatening when the girls' race started around 6:00 PM. Paige Churchill, a Swift Creek eighth-grader, had won her last seven Leon County Schools cross-country races, a winning streak going back to the 2016 season. Churchill also had a perfect three-for-three record in Leon County Schools races at Apalachee Regional Park.

Girls' 3K

But it was Maya Tang who was leading the race after the first half kilometer, running six seconds ahead of Churchill. Tang was still ahead with a kilometer to go, her lead increased to fifteen seconds. Unchallenged up to that point, Tang continued home unchallenged, placing first in 12:52. Churchill took second in 13:13, and Swift Creek eighth-grader Stella Lewis was third in 13:22.

Paige Churchill

The Swift Creek girls had two more top-ten performers--seventh-grader Ava Jones was sixth in 13:43, and seventh-grader Elizabeth Kessler was tenth in 14:33. Seventh-grader Anna Caulkins was Swift Creek's fifth runner, finishing fifteenth in 14:56 and completing the Wolves' team total of 36 points, good for first place in the field of seven teams. Tang's Deerlake squad was second with 52 points. Montford was third with 57 points, led by seventh-grader Skye Williams, who placed seventh in 13:59.


2018 ARPXC Invitational Team Standings, Girls

1. Swift Creek, 36
2. Deerlake, 52
3. Montford, 57
4. Raa, 125
5. Fairview, 140
6. Cobb, 150
7. Fort Braden, 180
8. Griffin, NTS

Top Ten Girls, 2018 ARPXC Invitational

1. 12:51.04, Maya Tang (Deerlake) 8
2. 13:12.70, Paige Churchill (Swift Creek) 8
3. 13:21.07, Stella Lewis (Swift Creek) 8
4. 13:29.70, Madison Sims (Fort Braden) 6
5. 13:37.14, Leah Kiros (Deerlake) 7
6. 13:42.42, Ava Jones (Swift Creek) 7
7. 13:58.90, Skye Williams (Montford) 7
8. 14:08.28, Livia Rose Clark (Montford) 8
9. 14:21.00, MacKenzie Hulquist (Montford) 7
10. 14:32.56, Elizabeth Kessler (Swift Creek) 7

Links

• Complete results of the 2018 ARPXC Invitational
  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSyrfEWh9AAhzHmp9iQarDp5_OhsB4viUEn_UnADLeqAgy2nVWu6V9JjF1OsrxALSMyls56tSACCXSt/pubhtml
  
  
• More photos of the 2018 ARPXC Invitational
  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10112525968909743&type=1&l=d1ce86bd79
  
  
• The 2018 LCS middle school cross-country season
  
  • ARPXC Invitational https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2018/08/swift-creek-2018.html
    
  • Fort Braden Run [ Coming on 6 September 2018 ]
    
  • Everhart Invitational [ Coming on 13 September 2018 ]
    
  • Mustang Invitational [ Coming on 20 September 2018 ]
    
  • Falcon Invitational [ Coming on 27 September 2018 ]
    
  • LCS Championship [ Coming on 4 October 2018 ]
    
  
  
• Leon County Schools' 2018 middle school cross country schedule
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2018/07/lcs-xc-2018.html
  
  
• Find your next cross country race on the Trouble Afoot! calendar
  https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/search/label/calendar?max-results=1
  
  

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