After a Friday night of Championship racing, day two of the
2019 Wingfoot XC Classic hosted by Atlanta Track Club brought yet another exciting
morning of racing, with four varsity races featuring some of the state's top
teams delivering fierce competition and standout performances.
The action heated up early as the sun came up in the Varsity
Boys A 5K, which featured three boys going under 16 minutes. 2000 meters into
the race, a deep pack had formed out front, with Hart County's Matthew Brown
and Samuel Garringer commanding the race, trailed closely by Jonathan Greene of
Evans High School and Jackson Borden of Lovett. As they wound their way through
the course, Brown was dropped from the pack, leaving a three-man group of
Borden, Garringer and Greene going separated by just a few seconds going into
the final 1400m.
In the last mile it was Greene who was able to summon the
strength needed to deliver a victory, as the Evans junior surged and powered
through the finish line to take the win in 15:52.8. Blowing a kiss to the crowd
and thanking his coach and dad, Greene took the win by more than five seconds
over Garringer, who finished in 15:57.3.
Race favorites Roswell High School lived up to expectations,
as they were able to take the victory over Gainesville High School with 118
points. The Roswell boys put all five of their runners inside the top 34 to
secure the commanding win.
In the A race on the girls' side, the story was a little
more straightforward, as Kayla Gholar dominated from the halfway point to turn in
a lopsided win. Running alongside Evans' Katherine Earwood and Gainesville's
Ashley Thompson through one mile, Gholar absolutely turned on the jets in the second
portion of the race. Going through two miles with just a four second advantage,
Gholar was able to stretch that into a 16 second win as she cruised to the victory
in 18:31.4.
Gholar's impressive race was enough to vault Richmond Hill
into fourth place in the team competition, which was won by Dunwoody High School.
Dunwoody's 148 points just narrowly edged them ahead of Johns Creek High School's
149 for the title, with Holy Innocents rounding out the podium positions.
The Varsity racing continued in the B divisions, with German
exchange student Jara Marei Auf Dem Be turning in the most impressive Varsity B
performance as she took the victory by more than 45 seconds in 18:59.2 for
William Blount High. Racing with just five runners, Chattahoochee High School
took the girls' team title in the B division with 90 points, as they managed to
place three runners inside the top 20 and all five inside the top 31.
On the boys' side, Lane Hollis of Coahulla Creek High school
was able to pull away from the Stamey brothers of Franklin High School in the second
half of the race to take the win in 16:32.4. The junior outlasted the twins,
who came second and third, with Nathan finishing in 16:40 and Ethan in 16:41. And
while North Atlanta only put one runner inside the top 10, their tight pack led
them to victory in the team competition, as they took home the title with 105
points over Chattahoochee.
Though the high school races headlined the morning, the
first runners on the course this morning were part of the event's community
race, in which Atlanta Track Club members competed as part of the Grand Prix
Series presented by Piedmont Healthcare. The men's race was won by Riley
Thornton in 15:55, with Kayli Moody taking the women's win in 20:12.
Four JV races rounded out the day's affairs, wrapping a
two-day event that has become the Southeast's largest cross country meet in its
fifth year. 19 races took place across the two days of racing at Sam Smith
Park. To see a recap of the Championship races from Friday night, click here.
