War Eagles Face Deep Fields at Pickens Preview

JASPER, GA - It was cool and damp as we rolled into Roper Park this morning.  Shortly before dawn, it started drizzling and then settled into a constant cloud of mist in the air, clearly visible within in the backlighting of the lights illuminating the entire park.  Roper Park nestled within a long and skinny parcel of land as it holds 8 baseball and softball fields stacked end-to-end and capped off with a soccer field at its terminus.  The park is basically wide enough to hold those baseball fields, plus an adjacent parking lot and lower soccer fields, which is where the start and finish areas were located.  Because of this layout, it is very spectator friendly as it is extremely easy to get from the start to the 1-mile marker, then to the 2-mile marker, and finally down to the finish line without having to walk very far.  But with the ease that it gives XC coaches and fans, the park itself was built for baseball and soccer, not really cross country running.  With trails marked with ground level cones, runners have to meander their way around soccer field perimeters, between paved walkways, diagonally across an entire parking lot, and around bleachers and a bullpen which leaves the course long and narrow with not a lot of room to pass other runners.

The Pickens Preview is known by the running community to be flat, fast, and a course known to be PR heaven...and it did not disappoint.  The Pickens Preview Meet record was broken in the Girls Varsity race and the War Eagles saw 12 total personal records (PR) broken by our runners this morning, even with the mist in their faces.  The Pickens Preview is one of the premier early-season events attended by large and small schools that get to showcase who has been training over the summer...and who has some work to do before championships start later next month.

The Boys Varsity squad got off to a slow start having to weave their way on the narrow course combined with the 183 total runners in the race.  Sophomore Romeo Vasquez and Freshmen Colton Blackburn and Miguel Valdez are seen in this photo passing the mile marker before starting the second lap around the park.  In the end, the boys struggled against 20 other teams and ended up in 21st place, with Jonathan Smith being our lead runner finishing with a time of 20:09.50.  Following Smith were 5 PRs from Jefferson Sibrian, Pedro Pedro-Martin, Easton Chaffin, Colton Blackburn, and Miguel Valdez.  Of the PRs, Sibrian bested his by almost 2 minutes!

The mist in the air really started picking up when the Girls Varsity started.  Our girls had to race with 155 total in their event, but without one of our top runners, Senior Izzy Wintermantel today.

You can see the mayhem in the photo to the left as Freshman Emma Dobson is in the middle of the pack with Senior Kayleigh McBride following behind her.  Despite how we are used to seeing Emma ahead, she found herself being boxed in the narrow course as low as 40th just after the start.  By the 1-mile marker she had worked up to 25th and made a late surge into the Top-10 to finish 9th with a PR of 19:37.90.

Kayleigh McBride was the next PR to cross to finish and followed by PRs from both Junior Crystal Vaca and Freshman Bella McClenathen.  Leilani Moreno finished out the race as our 5th runner of the day, but despite the late surge and PRs, the girls finished 12th overall of 20 total teams including behind fellow 3A schools of North Hall, White County, and Pickens all within Region 6 with Chestatee.

Both of our JV teams got to experience how deep of rosters some of the 4A and 5A schools that were competing at the Preview had as the JV boys finished 19th out of 21 teams and the JV girls finished 13th out of 14 teams.  On the Boys JV team, Sophomore Jose Romero recorded a PR and on the Girls JV team, Freshmen Harper Irvin and Abilene Sanchez also recorded a PR.

Next up, we travel to Nopone (as our runners call it) for the North Hall Invitational up at the North Hall Community Center.  This is a combined Middle School and High School meet that also boasts a fast course.  Luckily, it looks like we are going to see some cooler weather sticking around next week as heat and sun have fatigued the runners over the last few years.  The High School races will start around 5:30pm on September 4th.  Make sure to check out ChestateeXC.com for admission and course information for the upcoming race.

Photo Credits: Josh Dobson

INDIVIDUAL CXC FINISHERS (TOP 7 RUNNERS)

Medalists in Bold

VARSITY BOYS (Team: 21st Place, 597 points)

1. Jonathan Smith, 124th (105)
2. Jefferson Sibrian, 131st (110)
3. Pedro Pedro-Martin, 155th (123)
4. Easton Chaffin, 158th (126)
5. Colton Blackburn, 167th (133)
6. Romeo Vazquez, 169th
7. Miguel Valdez, 173rd

VARSITY GIRLS (Team: 12th Place, 343 points)

1. Emma Dobson, 9th (9)
2. Kayleigh McBride, 58th (56)
3. Crystal Vaca, 91st (84)
4. Isabella McClenathen, 93rd (86)
5. Leilani Moreno, 122nd (108)
6. Kylor Stewart, 126th
7. Alison Aguilar, 127th

JV BOYS (Team: 19th Place, 546 points)

1. Ramiro Lopez, 61st (58)
2. Israel Alcantar, 137th (115)
3. Royer Vasquez, 140th (116)
4. Jose Romero, 152nd (124)
5. Zach Smith, 165th (133)

JV GIRLS (Team: 13th Place, 353 points)

1. Harper Irvin, 58th (48)
2. Briana Aguilar, 85th (69)
3. Abilene Sanchez, 93rd (76)
4. BryAna Reyna, 94th (77)
5. Melanie Caballos-Benitez, 111th (83)
6. Beberly Domingo, 116th
7. Leslie Cruz, 126th
   

Apologies as the photographer had to leave before the JV races, so no photos were captured of the JV runners.  If you have photos that you would like to submit for either the Talon Talk blog or ChestateeXC social media, please email those to ChestateeXC@gmail.com.