Cross Country - Hornet Harriers Enter Championship Season

Fayetteville, Arkansas – Would the Greenhill cross country runners step up their efforts? How would their legs feel after a six hour long bus ride? How muddy and cold would it be on race day? And ultimately, would the Hornets perform well enough to be considered contenders for a top three finish at the November 6^th S.P.C. Championships? The Hornets hoped to find answers to these questions as the team traveled to Fayetteville, Arkansas, for the Chile Pepper Cross Country Invitational.  

The eight girls and eight boys who woke up for a 7 a.m. walk and shake out run at their hotel found the roads wet and cold. By the time the Hornets arrived at the race site, they were bundled up and focusing on their races. While the condition of the University of Arkansas cross country course could have been far worse, it was still muddy and cold. The varsity boys race started things off for the Hornets. The team’s top three runners came through the mile mark under 5:40 and from there, they showed their true strength. As has been his racing strategy, Eriq Robinson moved steadily through the field and ran negative split miles to cross the line in a new personal best of 16:56. Not to be outdone, five of the next Hornets to cross the line ran their best times, too! 

Brian Mickey had the biggest improvement on the day for the boys. He was the team’s third man behind the ever-improving freshman Ryan Duffy (17:27). Mickey’s sub 18 minute effort (17:56) came in a race where all of his hard summer training and consistent work this fall finally paid off. The boys had been told that their fifth scorer had to be in the low 19 minute range and evidently newcomer Ivan Kumamoto heard that call. Kumamoto used an aggressive first mile to help him run a new best (18:48) behind the team’s fourth scorer, Ben Taussig (18:23). The remaining boys included Borren Moe (new “pr” of 19:03), Jay Hashop (new “pr” of 19:25), and Dhiren Parbhoo (19:55). As a team, the boys finished 30^th in a large field that included 50 total schools. 

By the time the girls lined up on the starting line, the weather was warmer but the course even muddier since it was the fifth race of the morning at the University of Arkansas’s beautiful cross country site. Chelsey Sveinsson started off nicely and took the lead by the 600 meter mark of the race. Her run turned into a solo race of sorts which was measured by effort as opposed to time. Her final time of 17:32 was a whopping 45 seconds ahead of the runner up. It was Chelsey’s third win in a row at the Chile Pepper Invitational. Meanwhile, Liz Livingston and Amanda Garcia were working together for the first half of the race. Livingston started moving up at the two mile mark and finished in an impressive 21:37 for her first 5K (3.1 miles) race. Garcia was next in for the Hornets with a 22:17.  

Similar to the boys, the girls needed someone to emerge out of their pack as the team’s fourth and fifth scorers. With Katherine Marmion, Madeline Nelson, and Noelle Smith coming through the mile mark together, Marmion and Nelson ended up forging ahead to finish in 22:40 (new “pr”) and 22:57, respectively. Smith came across the line in 23:30 and both Lauren Shapiro (23:57) and Blythe Baresh (24:39), despite losing one of their shoes in a muddy section of the course near the finish line, showed heart and kept on going. The girls finished 23^rd out of 40 competing schools in the team competition. 

As the school readies for Homecoming this week, the Hornets will be looking ahead to Friday’s S.P.C. North Zone meet at Norbuck Park. That race will serve as an opportunity for the Hornets to see how they stack up against some of their conference rivals.

Click here to view the results.