The Whitefield boys and girls cross-country teams traveled to Douglasville on Saturday morning to compete in the Alexander/ASICS Invitational at Fox Hall Farms. This course is relatively flat and beautifully manicured. Coupled with favorable weather conditions on Saturday, the race promised to produce some fast times and it did not disappoint. Whitefield entered 16 runners and every one of them had a milestone performance: twelve posted PR times and the other four had their best times of the 2014 season.
The boys got things started, with eleven Whitefield runners competing in the boys championship race. Senior Robby Keough was Whitefield’s top finisher, in a season-best time of 15:44.5, just five seconds off his PR on the same course a year ago. The trio of senior Jake Fikse, freshman Brooks Merkle, and junior Kerry Martin finished close to one another, with times of 17:34.4 (Jake, season best), 17:39.8 (Brooks, PR) and 17:41.0 (Kerry, season best), respectively. Brian Pickens (10th) rounded out the top five, with a PR time of 18:36.2, nearly a full minute ahead of his previous best. Other PR performances included Nicholas Harris (9th), Kalen Tavassoli (11th), Brook Bynum (11th), Parker Cantrell (9th), and Hunter Bilotti (9th). JB Cantrell (11th) rounded out the boys’ efforts with a season best time.
The WolfPack continued this strong momentum in the girls championship race, with all five runners finishing with PR times as well. Freshman Grace Kistulinic led the way with a time of 21:20.5 (PR), and was followed by senior Gabby Boswell in 23:05.1 (PR). PR performances were also turned in by Ryan Llewelyn (9th), Maggie Heiskell (9th), and Kate Taylor (10th).
The boys and girls teams are entering the final weeks of their season, with the region championships just over two weeks away, on October 30. Both teams will compete again next Saturday, October 18, at the Sharptop Invitational in Jasper, GA.