SWT Sports Writer
sports@southwesttimes.com
The Cougar cross country team will travel to Salem’s Green Hill Park today and compete against the very best that the region and state has to offer at the River Ridge District Championships on October 28.
The team competed in the 20th Annual Twin County Regional HealthCare Autumn Day 5K on October 17 in Galax as a tune up for the district meet.
Aaron Akers was the leading finisher for the Cougars with a time of 18:49 and finished in fifteenth place. J.T. Edney wasn’t far behind and finished in forty-fifth place with a time of 22:21.
For the girl’s, Pearl Meredith finished in fifty-first place with a time of 22:37. Teammate Grace England finished just seconds behind at 22:44 in fifty-second place.
Cougar’s cross country coach Jamie McCarty stressed the importance of the meet to prepare the runners for the River Ridge District meet.
“I think it was actually important,” McCarty said. “It was more on road. What we are going to do at Green Hill Park is a grass course, but it is relatively kind of the same. It is very flat and very easy. It was good for them to get out on something they will be similar to what they will be running on, being in a crowd and going out and seeing where they were from where they raced two weeks ago.”
All six teams in the River Ridge will compete for four spots in the regionals. A total of 12 teams from three districts will be represented in the regionals. The two major teams to watch out for on the boy’s side will be Blacksburg, the state runner-up from a year ago, and Christiansburg.
The Bruins field one of the best teams in the district and state on the girl’s side too. Blacksburg holds the record for most girl’s State Championships in AA for cross country with 11. Hidden Valley will also be a tough girl’s team to contend with. Although things usually hold form from the regular season, McCarty reminds everyone that nothing is impossible.
“Wednesday can bring tons of surprises,” McCarty said. “I’ve seen things that you didn’t expect to happen actually happen and things that should happen go the opposite direction. We’ve had a full week to string some more training in.”
Because of the small nature of the boy’s team, all runners will compete individually for their Regional berth. The top 15 runners, regardless of team, will advance to the Regionals as well. Akers and Edney, the two strongest boy’s runners on the team, will try to advance by running their way in.
On the girl’s side, Pearl Meredith and Grace England will compete for top honors against some of the best in the district and state. McCarty offered his thoughts on both of their chances of advancing.
“Aaron on the guy’s side will have a good chance to advance,” McCarty said. “Grace and Pearl are going to have to step it up a notch because it is so tough with Hidden Valley and Blacksburg being so strong. Both those teams could put all 14 of their runners in the top 15, which leaves one spot for everyone else. It is going to be a lot of work, but we have made some steps and strides.”
Overall though, McCarty wants to see his team not only finish well, but to show some improvement and progress from the beginning of the season.
“For us, we want to be better than where we were when we started the year,” McCarty said. “We’ve been headed in that direction. We kind of want to build on what we did at Galax. Unfortunately for us, we are in a district where we have the #1 and #2 ranked girl’s teams in the state. Blacksburg and Christiansburg are both in the top 10 on the guy’s side. It is going to be a challenge, but I feel like we’ve made some progress. I feel like we’ve taken a big step in the right direction. We just need to go out there, take a shot at it, and see where the chips fall.”
(10-29-09)
No comments:
Post a Comment