The Westover Invitational began in 1982 and is now in its 29th year remaining the largest XC meet in South Georgia. Coach Ron Clanton of Peachtree Ridge started the program at Westover in 1979 and Robert Cross Middle School course, which has been the venue since 2002 is named in his honor. Back in 2000-2001, when  time standards were recognized as a means to qualify for the State Meet 72 schools attended the race to meet the obsolete qualifying standards on the fast track at neighboring Darton College.....

A n n o u n c i n g   The Atlanta Track Club Foundation   Metro Atlanta High School College Scholarship   In Memory of Patty Foell   Nominations due by February 1, 2011

Read'um and Weep

The Asics Invitational at McIntosh this Saturday looks to be as good as ever.  Last year the meet was moved Clinton because of the flood, but the meet is back at McIntosh for the tenth time.        Boys Preview: The boy’s race has 10 ranked teams in the varsity race with 4 of those teams coming from 3A alone. North Hall, Woodward, Oconee and Grady are all ranked in 3A and with this race being only 5 weeks from the state meet should provide fans of 3A a preview of things to come. Mill Creek and McIntosh represent the 4 and 5A classes with Blessed Trinity, Athens Christian, Gallaway and Providence Christian in 2A and 1A. The individual race should be good with Nathan Vassey of Woodward academy leading the way with a 15:44 PR this year. He is followed by Joshua Jenkins of Athens Christian, Jeff Bagley of West Forsyth and North Hall’s Cody Barger following closely behind. The boys race has over 20 runners with a sub 17 PR this year.        Girls Preview: The girl’s race should be the highlight of the day. There are 11 ranked teams from classes’ 1A-4A. The match-up that everyone will be watching will be the showdown between Blessed Trinity and Westminster ranked #1 and 2 respectively in 2A. Individually the girls will be highlighted by Taylor Roeck of West Forsyth, Maddy Wetterhal of Chamblee, Destiny Jenkins of Athens Christian and Sahara Fletcher of Westminster.

This Saturday, 14 schools (Alpharetta, Banneker, Creekside, Centennial, Chattahoochee, John’s Creek, Langston-Hughes, Milton, North Springs, Northview, Riverwood, Roswell, Tri-Cities & Westlake) converge on Webb Bridge Park in Alpharetta, the site of the Fulton County Public Schools XC Championships. On the course used since 2003, host school Chattahoochee puts on one of the best meets all season and the 2010 event should be another well-run and exciting meet.  The meet schedule begins with an open race (2:15pm) followed by the JV Girls & JV Boy’s with the varsity races going at 4:25pm (Girls) & 5:05pm (Boy’s).  Unique to this meet is the Best Overall Program Award. In its 10th year, this award is given to the school that scores/finishes high in all four scored team races. Centennial is the defending champion (winning the award in 2009 on the 1st tie-breaker over Milton).

Chapel Hill's Wade Voyles digs down deep in the latter part of the race enroute to victory in 15:44 at the new Clinton Farms layout. The Atlanta Classic was a great meet and the folks from Chapel Hill did a great job as hosts once again. This new version of the Clinton Farms ( Nature Preserve) course seemed to be well received by the majority of coaches with some tighter turns, the "sand pit" and a long gradual final mile. It got blistering hot by the time the last JV race was contested. Yes, actual racing occurred today and a few statements were made by 2 schools in particular. Photos now up on the Meet Page.

Official Rankings for Week 3. A few changes.....

The 2010 Atlanta Classic        24 teams will gather at Clinton Nature Preserve on Saturday morning for the 2010 Atlanta Classic, presented by GATFXC.com and hosted by Chapel Hill High School.  Predicted above normal temperatures and a newly-configured (and marginally slower) Clinton course will moderate the times a bit, but a talented field and a host of top-ranked teams should provide an outstanding morning of racing. This year’s layout will also give a nod to old-school cross country, with 3 separate hay-bale jumps (optional, but with about a 20 meter cumulative distance advantage). The meet is presented this year by GATFXC.com, and extensive post-race coverage will be provided including photos, videos and race recaps. Chik-fil-A also joins as a sponsor for 2010.

Panthers and Broncs Tear up the Turf at River Green photo credit: Photo @ Phillip Gomez Gwinnett is Great..Yes, that's what it says on the water tower on I-85 and that's how it  went down at River Green Parkway Saturday morning. This meet was the exact opposite of 09' as temps were nice early and it was dry compared to the swampy/rainy mess that included an instant creek that plagued all runners reaching a depth of 2 feet and a length of almost 10 meters.

For all the anticipation, there's not much talk on the board about this meet.  Marc Bloom, the editor and publisher of The Harrier Magazine, recently wrote an article about Gwinnett County as Rift Valley South - one of the nation's hotbeds in high school distance running. Numerous state champions and All-Americans support this claim and make this meet one of the most anticipated and competitive county meets in the country. There are 23 high schools in Gwinnett County and they populate many of the classification state rankings.

A few shakeups in the Coaches Association Rankings.

 Official Week 1 Cross Country Rankings. These Rankings are distributed to all the Metro Media outlets as well as Local "weekly" newspapers. Please contact your Sports Editor and urge them to pubish these in their Print and Online Editions.

Preview of the 2nd Annual Decision Bridge Invitational. Currently over 620 runners and 22 Teams are entered. Teams from as far away as Rome and Macon will converge on the Calvin Center in Hampton this Saturday.

   Grace Tinkey turns the Corner at Berry enroute to 17:57  (photos by Nicholas Zincone)  Westminster's Spencer Nash and John Whelchel battle to the Finish line             Alas, two full weekends of XC have now occurred and we have perhaps some very early indicators of who many contenders for titles may be and perhaps one that may be unbeatable in their class. UGA was a  stark contrast this past weekend compared to last season when it was a redneck's boggin' heaven. Not the case as footing was good and some even noted that Berry got dusty as it warmed up. Many teams top 7 at Berry will not reflect who their top 7 is come Region and State as runners get healthy, injured and others improve greatly.