Many teams had strong early season efforts at the 5th Annual Mercy Invite this past Saturday. Although this was a Featured Meet of https://ga.milesplit.com the real winners were all the teams that competed and urged on each other diplaying great sportsmanship throughout every race. Our Lady of Mercy was gracious in hosting the meet with plenty of friendly volunteers and course rangers. A special thanks goes out to Mark Lethbridge who provided me with access to the course that I needed and coordinated coverage with the website as well as being the PA announcer.
The first race of the day was the Girls Varsity race and Wesleyan dominated the field leaving no doubt that they will be contending for the AA title in 2007. Erika Ramsey paced their victory placing 3rd individually in 20:13 along with Jane Strader's 20:53 9th place effort. 4A Greenbrier made the long trip from Augusta to capture 2nd led by Individual Champ Chelsea Maxwell with a strong 19:56. Class A #3 Providence Christian was 3rd in the team scoring led by the trio of Alison Pregg, Jordan Kelly and Mary Katherine Mills. Kelly Karcher of Fellowship Christian led the first loop of the race and finished in 20:07 good for 2nd place. Other top individuals were Elena Hubbard of Evans in 20:13, Lauren Kestor of Greater Atlanta Christian- 20:24, Alison Bishop of Woodland- 20:25, Kelsey Spinks of Eagles Landing - 20:30 and Sophia Artuso also from GAC in 20:32.
Mercy's boys squad was just too deep and talented and were never pressed as they won their first team title at the Mercy Invite. But, Joe Cromer of Eagles Landing announced his presence with authority as an individual contender for the AAA title. Cromer laid back right behind the leaders much of the race but his conditioning proved to be the difference as he pulled away and cruised to a 16:43 and seemed not winded. Placing 2nd behing Cromer was tri-athlete Will Ficklen of Spalding in 16:51. Ficklen will not compete this coming week due to a triathlon. The Bobcat's winning team effort was led by Thomas Raville as he continues to prove to be a top A individual in 17:06. The next 4 Mercy runners were in a tight pack beginning with Christian Willis (who is a starting running back on the gridiron) in 17:38, Matt Lethbridge- 17:43, Jared Cooper- 17:50, and Jake Lethbridge- 17:51. Greenbrier was team runnerup led by the trio of Taylor Snyder- 17:15, Joey Castillo- 17:26 and Robert Blackwelder- 17:34. Eagles Landing took 3rd place hardware back to Henry County with a 17:55 team average and were boosted along with Cromer's win by Jamel Wood in 17:56 and Alex Davis in 17:58. Also having strong individual races were Mac Fidler in 5th of Decatur in 17:22 and Josh Mercer of NS Columbus in 17:24.