Its another big turnout for the Mountain Invitational this Thursday
Its one of the biggest, baddest weekday mega meets of the season held at Unicoi State Park
This Thursday, Unicoi State Park will gather 1900 runners for one of the largest weekday meets in the nation.
This year's AAA meet will be very exciting! The forecast calls for mud and AAA will be the 5th and 6th races of the day out of 14 so it will be sloppy, but not as bad as later in the afternoon. When there's this much on the line, nobody cares about the weather, it's GAME ON!! Congratulations to all AAA State qualifiers and good luck on Saturday.
This year's AAA meet will be very exciting! The forecast calls for mud and AAA will be the 5th and 6th races of the day out of 14 so it will be sloppy, but not as bad as later in the afternoon.
Everyone in 8-AAAA has known this moment was eventually coming. In what has become a distance running hotbed, there will be several ranked teams that won't get through to Carrollton.
Over 1500 runners will make their way to Unicoi State Park in Helen to run in the Mountain Invitational on Thursday.
Podium teams look to be Blessed Trinity, East Jackson, Westminster, and Oconee County. Blessed Trinity has a small time spread 1-5, but East Jackson has one of the best front three in Georgia with the Kennedy Brothers and Noah Hulett. Westminster has tradition on their side while Oconee County showed at region they cannot be overlooked. Savannah Arts will need to prove they can handle the Hills and pressure of the AAA State race.
Although AAA is a little down after the departure of some heavy hitters to 4A, Westminster, Blessed Trinity, Hart County , and Oconee County should be the top contenders for a spot on the Podium. Westminster looks to be the favorite to win another title but did Blessed Trinity hold back at Region? Audrey Honiotes of Hart County, Westminster’s Delaney Graham, and MaryClaire Solomon should be in the lead pack once the gun goes off on November 8th.
This year's Mountain Invitational at Unicoi State Park is the biggest and most competitive we've ever seen! There are 1700 runners registered to run on a beautiful course and with chip timing, arguably making the Mountain Invite the premier weekday meet on the 2014 Georgia meet calendar.
Warpath produced some blazing times this morning with many teams finally running a cooler morning race. It was very humid, but teams couldn't complain as there was cloud cover all day, including the later JV races. The track was packed firm and quick and some great competition produced super speedy September times. Logan Poteet was machine-like again winning unfettered while Emma Grace Hurley held off a late charge by Morgan Ilse taking the overall title.
The AAA Girls of course will follow the Boys race and conditions at the bottom half of the hour will warm a few degrees as the sun rises over the trees, with the wind beginning to pickup to 7mph. Will Blessed Trinity push St.Pius X? Can anyone challenge Jenna Gearing of White County?
The State meet will kickoff at 7:45am with the very competitve AAA boys race with power programs like St.Pius X, North Hall and Woodward. Its projected to be almost perfect conditions, Partly Cloudy at 40 degrees, with a ESE wind at 5mph. Expect to see alot of long sleeves..and some serious racing down the finishing hill for team points.
North Hall's boys and White County's girls both defended their region titles on Thursday on a beautiful day at Unicoi State Park just above Helen. North Hall ripped a 16:23 team average, putting 6 runners in the top 8 by the 16:48 mark. White County's girls took the title with a 20:25 team average, putting 3 in the top 7 in a competitive girls race. Jenna Gearing broke her own Unicoi course record in 18:22
Thursday’s Mountain Invitational looks to be one of the top weekday invites in the state with over 1400 runners registered to fly across the fields and up and down the mountain! Chip timing this year, looks pretty warm at race time with a high of 79 at the start of the Middle School races. The humidity is low and there’s some good shade on a lot of the course so should be a good day for a run. Can’t wait for a true XC festival in the mountains with music blasting and neon shirts running all over God’s great creation!
Here is a preview from White County Coach Sam Borg. This year’s Mountain Invitational is bigger than ever, as 32 high schools and 24 middle schools will bring over 1600 runners ready to charge up and over that hill. Heavy rain early in the week should calm down to give us decent conditions for Thursday’s race. High humidity will combine with highs in the 70s, cooling down as we get to the Varsity races at 5:00 and 5:30.....
