Whitefield Hosts City-Wide Cross-Country TrialWhitefield Hosts City-Wide Cross-Country Trial

On Saturday, September 14, Whitefield Academy hosted the first Whitefield Academy Middle School cross-country time trial.  The time trial consisted of six races (6th grade boys/girls, 7th grade boys/girls and 8th grade boys/girls).  The race format was based on the Peachtree Ridge/Walton Stage Race, which is a high school two -mile race early in the season to help teams gauge their training prior to their first competitive team meet.



Since Middle School is not GHSA regulated, the meet was open to public schools, private schools and club teams.  This initial event was well attended with 371 registered runners and 14 schools from across the metro-Atlanta area as well as schools from as far away as Temple and Carrollton, Georgia.



The 1.5 mile course started on the football field, ended on the track and crossed the grand stands two times thus providing the fans excellent viewing from a central location.  The top ten finishers from each race received a medal for their efforts. 



Joshua Orr (8th) finished in 5th place in a time of 10:03. Julian Munoz (7th)

finished  5th in the 7th grade race in a time of 10:48.  Colson Gulledge (7th) finished 9th place in the 7th grade race in a time of 10:57.  Hunter Bilotti (8th) finished in 24th place in a time of 11:13 and rounding out the top five for the boys was Stephen Hellier (8th) with a time of 11:41.For the girls, Ryan Llewelyn  (8th) placed  4th for the girls in 11:17.  Marie Schmitz with a pulled hamstring ran a 13:02 and Katarina Kelly ran a 14:10.




Many thanks to the approximately 25 volunteers, consisting of cross-country parents, PackBackers and Upper School cross-country team members, for their hard work on the course, press box and concession stand. The event was sponsored by Wade Ford and West Stride running store and timed by Smart Timing of Marietta, Georgia.  The net team entrance fee, concessions and gate collection proceeds will benefit the track and cross country teams. 



Planning is underway to make this an annual event for the purpose of Honoring Him and promoting cross-country at Whitefield.