Meet Information
Ellie Spears of Grady Interview
Meet Recap
The fourth edition of the APS Cross Country Series meets took place on September 25 with over 200 athletes taking to the winding and hilly Grant Park course.
Jayden Causey of Drew Charter recorded the fastest boys time run on the challenging Grant Park course this season. His 18:12.40 was just ahead of Kipp Atlanta Collegiates Logan Beasley, who led for the first two miles, but finished second in 18:15.70. Grady claimed third through fifth with Luke Langan running 18:21.2, Bram Mansbach finishing in 18.21.5 and Kavi Jakes crossing the line in 18:29.1. Each of the top five finishers were able to maintain a sub six-minute mile pace throughout the race.
"Our goal for City Championships is to run as a team, run fast, have the people in the back get up more and have the people in the front push them," said Causey, who is looking forward to the APS City Championships race at Grant Park on October 8. "We'll just try to shave off a lot of time and try to get top three out of all the schools coming here."
Ellie Spears captured her third APS Cross Country Series win this year and recorded the fastest Grant Park course time of the season among the girls with a time of 23:05.5. Her teammates took the next three spots with Emilia Weinrobe running 23:16.3, Marisa Lopata going 23:39.6 and Zoe Chan finishing in 23:43.6. North Atlanta claimed fifth through seventh.
"Today's race went really well because Grady was able to stick together pretty well and finish top four," said Spears. Our team has always stuck together. "If one person is falling behind well drop back and help them get back to their pace. We focus on everyone as a team rather than individual runners."
The most improved boys and girls teams won a couple of fruit platters, though the boys platter ended up being shared among the various teams who quickly dug into the watermelon, grapes and apples after a long, hot day of running. The Grady boys won in team scoring with 27 points ahead of North Atlanta (60) and KIPP Atlanta Collegiate (92). Grady also took the girls team W with 18 points. North Atlanta was second with 39 points and KIPP Atlanta Collegiate was third with 110 points.