32nd Annual Westover Invitational Preview

                                                                         

                                                       32nd Annual Westover Invitational Preview

Its time to make the Fall trek 'Way Down South' to Albany again for the infamous Westover Invitational at the blazing fast Robert Cross Middle School course. The Westover Cross Country Invitational is entering its 32nd Year.  The inaugural meet was organized by Coach Ron Clanton and held in 1982 on the campus of Darton State College.  He would be meet director for 20 years until his departure from Westover.  
 

The Venue

Darton State College was the home of the meet for 21 Years.  Many teams came to Albany to try and qualify for the state meet through the old time standards that were in place until the 2001 season. With expansion at Darton State College in 2002, the meet was officially moved to Robert Cross Middle School that had just been finished.  The course was built on the campus and the adjoining pecan orchard next to the school.  Now teams make the trip to Albany to run in the picturesque setting of the orchard as the sun rises in the morning hours.
 

Course Records

Here is a link with some history of the times ran dating back to 2005. Brendan Hoban formerly of St.Pius X holds the Boys course record at 15:06 back in 2010 and Kristina Delpesche of Columbus reset the Girls record 2 seasons ago in 18:02  A great percentage of runners set prs and season bests here. It has to be a positive as one toes the line they are going to run fast (unless allergic to pecan trees)
 

Girls Race

Nearly all the XC programs in southwest Ga will be competing including some of the better squads like Westover boys, Lowndes girls. Some metro teams making an overnite trip out of it including Centennial, Cherokee, Creekview, Lovett, North Gwinnett and Pace. In the team races Centennial's Girls should be a good pick to lug some hardware back to Roswell as well as North Gwinnett. There are some fast females that will joust for the overall title including Courtney Czerniak of North Gwinnett, Caitlyn Farrell of Cherokee, Maddy Peterson of Centennial. It will be interesting to see how the south ga girls measure up in this race like Paige Braswell of Bainbridge, Abby Booth of Perry and Bethanie Bailey of Veterans.
 

Boys Race

The race for the Boys team title appears to be up for grabs with Metro schools Cherokee, Lovett, Creekview, Centennial and Pace having an advantage. Individually, a lead pack should form after Mile 1 with Hakeem Mustafaa of Shaw gunning for his 2nd major overall title after winning at Battle of Atlanta 2 weeks back. Chase Harris of Bainbridge will try to keep pace with him in a 4A matchup and others seeking an individual title may be Brendan Garriques of Creekview, Joshua Rogers of Pace and Jackson Reid from Perry.