Here come the Greyhounds for 2024 XC season......

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The Cobb County Championships, after being postponed for expected rain which never happened, were held in some dusty, HOT, conditions at Allatoona Creek Park on a Monday afternoon.    What we learned from this meet was that even when the conditions are not ideal we can preserver. 

The varsity races were contested first and our girl’s  team WON the County TEAM championship behind the steady running of our top ladies Josie 3rd , Aislynn 4th and  Louise at 6th.   Ahna, competing in her first 5K of the season, had an incredible race and finished at 9th with Kate having an impressive return in 10th    Phoebe was our just “just in case” varsity athlete and ran great in 17th overall…She would have been the top runner in 7 of the other 13 schools 😊 FIVE Greyhounds in the top 10 is very impressive!!!

Next up were the boys,  Led by Dermot in 9th,  Jay 13th,   Bennett, Rowen, and Kaleb  the boys finished 5th as a TEAM.  WE know that our boys have higher aspirations, and they will maintain their training to be ready as we get into the championship part of the season.    You can’t be at your best everyday and definitely days like this make the good days GREAT!!!!!! I believe in this united group and we will CELEBRATE them when we put it all together as a TEAM!!!!😊 

Our top JV girls were Nellie, Sophie, Emma, London and our individual Jv CHAMP, Fallyn!!!!!!!

The jv boys also did well and were led my Bradley, in his first race of the season, finishing 2nd overall!!!  Jason,  Jackson (after a weekend a FULL of soccer games),  Miles and Nader  were our key contributors on the boys JV team.

 

After sitting in the parking lot for a little extended team time, the greyhounds made it to Carrollton to preview the State XC course.    Thank you, parents, for your ability to quickly assist with getting our athletes to the meet 😊    The Jv boys started off the day and performed admirably with Kaleb (4th overall) leading, Garrett, Ryan, Ari and Jackson all representing us well.  .  The JV girls, running in he large school varsity division,  were led by Emma then Avery (1:56 improvement from 2023) Ansley, Nellie (2:04 improvement)and London.   Getting in a race on the challenging State course will only make you better!!!!   The varsity boys were up next with a crew of athletes who had not previously run the State meet 5K course.    Dermot took off in the lead group in his senior debut race.    We realize this was just a stepping stone and that are there are more important races later in the season but our boys showed promise for an exciting season progression.   Jay, Bennett and Rowen (1:28 faster than 2024) continue their close group running tactic that is working WELL!!!!!.  Bert was 5th and Griffin 6th (1:21 faster than 2023)   racing to a TEAM 4th place finish.    WE are on the right course, boys, and as a group we are faster than at this point last season  Continue to  maintain the focus as the end goal is to perform well on this course in 10 weeks.  #WeMustBeStrong  #TEAM Varsity Boys video

Our girls continued their 2024 campaign with a TEAM runner-up finish behind the very impressive performances of Josie (3rd) and Aislynn (4th) who were both in the 18’s😊.   Our fabulous freshman of Louise, Phoebe and Fallyn maneuvered the course with ease (at least it appeared that way)  to complete the scoring and earn some hardware for the TEAM.   WE continue to perform well as a group despite not yet being at full strength 😊 Varsity girls video
AS with the boys we need to be ready for  THIS course in November.   Next up County Championships……..

 

 

And again, your Hounds were up bright and early in pursuit of the perfect race.  This week we traveled in the DARK up to beautiful park in Rome Georgia for the Ridge Ferry Invitational!  Our varsity boys took off in a flurry of  promptly at 720AM 😊  Rowen started with the lead pack to get a taste of what is to come in his short career.  The very fast/flat course did not disappoint as the boys all ran very impressive times.  WE must NOT just look at time but also how we race against other schools and our boys and girls did just that as Pope was the TEAM CHAMPION for both varsity divisions!!!  This week Bennett/Jay and Rowen again led the boys all finishing within 3 seconds of each other …AND they all ran in the 16’s 😊    Bert and Griffin also had huge PR races to round out the scoring .  Our strength on the boy's team will be our depth in that we also had Jason/Kaleb in the 6 and 7 position to allow for a situation where someone may be sick or sit out a week.  In big meets this depth will be very important.     
Next up were the ladies and in the cool crisp air Pope girls took off with confidence.    It is rare for such young girls to perform so well but what the coaching staff is more impressed by is the maturity and resolve of this very young group!!!  As with the boys, we will continue appropriate training for EACH athlete to prepare adequately for the championship meets.    IF this means cross training or sitting out a week or continuing with our normal training, we will do it as the end result will be more important than the NOW!!!

Our JV squads also performed well,  Led by our new and returning runners and with many of the athletes PR’ing because they were running in their 1st ever 5K race 😊  Kudos go out to Jackson (5th overall with a 90 second PR), Miller, Miles,   Leading girls for the Hounds included Nellie, Ansley and Sophia.  Nice workout Greyhounds for your solid start to the season.

 This week we TRAIN then we will return to racing at the State meet course in Carrollton!

 

After the starter gave a very detailed set of instructions we were finally off and the 2024 season had begun…… Runners set,  BANG…..   Here came hundreds of mostly NEW runners in race 1 and 2 of the Hoya 2 mile Kick off run.  There are always nerves in the first race, but our group of young runners did a great job doing their warmup, getting their chips attached and heading to the line in plenty of time to do some last-minute drills and strides.    Because of the density of runners, many of our athletes were forced to run at a slower pace than they normally would have.  This proved to be beneficial as our athletes had impressive 1 and 2 mile splits!!  Leading the way for the ‘Hounds were Garrett (1st) ,  Jackson (3rd) Robbie, Ari and first year runner Miles!!
Getting some hardware for the ladies were Addy (4th) and Katie (5th).  Also running well were Sophia (9th) Trystin and Lailani.    Both of our TEAMS were overall Runner up in these races!!

In the 2nd set of races POPE had individual impressive performances in Bert (2nd) and Sophie  (1st)😊  Also running well in those races were Kaden, Ryan and Avery!!!!

In the final races of the day,  We raced against some mighty good competition with Pope athletes in their first high school competition.    They all acted as though this high school thing was normal and made us proud

Congrats to Jay for leading the boys, then Bennett and Rowen who battled to the line in a dead heat.  Rounding out the scoring  for the Greyhounds were Kaleb with Jason   These young men (only 1 upper classman) held their own and with continued dedicated training they are going to do some GREAT things!!!!

Our ladies ran very well putting 4 athletes in the top 9 overall.  Congrats to Josie (2nd), Aislynn (4th),  Kate (8th), and Louise (9th) With Ahna nursing a nagging injury,  Phoebe stepped up BIG to be our 5th runner in an impressive performance that allowed the lady Hounds to finish atop the stat-sheet of 11 teams. 

WE have much more to do to be prepared for a full 5K and for some hilly courses later in the season BUT the coaching staff was pleased with the attitude and effort of this first meet of 2024. ​​

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