Girls Win State XC meet

Sports - Panthers

Sharon Jones, 11/7/11         Click here to see State XC Results Published As you know we've been anticipating the impact our freshmen would make at State. It was even more of a difference that we all expected with both the boys and girls. Adrienne McGooden paced with Grayson at conference and we knew there was a possibility she would outrun her. But no one was taking bets, because of how determined and hardworking Grayson is. We just wasn't sure she'd let her. Adrienne ran a solid race going out fast and hanging with some tough runners. Bishop of Batesville had run a 19:10 and Little Rock Christian's Feruson had run a 19:30 earlier in the season. The fastest Adrienne had run was a 21:23 at the Chile Pepper. Yet she went out with these girls. You gotta love that. It paid off. She placed third overall earning herself a top 10 medal and All-State honors. She ran a 22:04, which was 46 seconds faster than she ran that course a week ago. On a normal course easily would have been a huge PR for her. Matti Fuller ran second for us finishing 9th overall in 22:55, also medaling and earning All-State. Matti almost ran out of gas with less than a half a mile to go. Thankfully, Coach Efurd was there to encourage her to go on and finish strong... or we would have been writing a different story. I'm so happy for both these girls. Our third runner was also a freshman, Taylor Gay. She ran a 23:19 to finish 12th overall. Grayson Tharp was 13th at 23:21, and Colleen Kretzer finished14th at 23:32 after falling hard going down one of those hills (I wish you could have seen this course, so unforgiving.) and cutting up both knees (She finished with blood running down both legs). We talked about running together fast. In the past we ran together well, but our times weren't quite there. I challenged them to push their pace together. We couldn't afford more than 20-30 seconds gap. Besides Adrienne running off and leaving them all, they did that. They did it marvelously. The girls moved up together just edging out Batesville, who I think had their 3rd, 4th,5th, and 6th girls come in right behind our fifth girl at 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th place. It was close. Not a bad way to leave the 5A though, breaking a 7 year string of state titles for the Batesville girls. All our girls finished high. Morgan Jackson ran 26 seconds, 24:41, faster this week coming in 25th place. Emily Lowry placed 34th, McKenzie Svebek was 35th, and Rebekah Hill was 40th. Very proud of all these girls. We came into State knowing there were two teams faster than us and it played out just like that. We knew Little Rock Christian had two guys running under 17:00 and that they had five guys running at or under 18:00. We didn't. We knew Greene Co. Tech had one under 17 and 3 more under 18:00. We didn't. So no big upsets, no surprises. We knew about half way through the race we were solidly in third place. We gave it our best and that's all we could do. I'm proud of our guys and how hard they ran. The two LRC guys took out like bandits. The GCT guy and Will chased after them. Will put himself in third place behind the two LRC guys and was holding his own, but bless his heart Graham. He gave out going up the last hill. Probably close to where Matti Fuller thought about hanging it up. Coach Efurd was there again and saw him down. He said Will was literally crawling up the hill on his hand and knees. He ran to him, but before he reached him, Will got up and continued to finish. He ended the race in 17th place with a time of 19:20. I'm sure he lost more than a minute struggling on that hill. Oh my gosh, that's what great stories are made of. I envy his determination. I asked him afterwards what happened and he said it was like his body just quit working. I'm so proud of him for getting up and finishing like he did. Christian Capehart ended up finishing first for the team in 18:42 in 7th place, winning a top 10 medal and making the All-State team. Matt Odom also made All-State finishing 14th in 19:15. That's four freshmen making All-State. I told you we didn't anticipate just how well they'd do. Tyler Low was right behind him just missing the All-State cut-off. Top 10% make All-State. He ran a 19:19 and was 16th place. Will still finished fourth for the team. Our fifth runner was Eduardo Frias, 19:28, 20th place. Jacob Rodgers - 20:16, 34th, Corbin Greening - 20:40, 43rd, and Christian Smith - 21:10, 55th. Matt, Eduardo, and Jacob all ran about 30 seconds faster than they did last week on that course. Our boys gave it a good effort, but I can tell you... third doesn't feel as good as 1st or 2nd. We'll get better. Boys: Little Rock Christian - 34 Greene County Tech - 37 SS - 69 Harrison - 189 Greenbrier - 207 Batesville - 221 Girls: SS - 43 Batesville - 52 Little Rcok Christian - 84 Vilonia - 126 Greenwood - 136 Green Country Tech - 176 Sharon Jones Tools/Physical Education Head Boys & Girls Cross Country Coach Junior High Girls Track 479-524-6184, Ext. 492263 Comments Search RSS Only registered users can write comments! Powered by !JoomlaComment 4.0 beta2 < Prev   Next >