Sept. 4 – Tuscola’s cross country teams competed at the WNC Cross Country Carnival in Hendersonville on Aug. 27, where the girls’ team placed eighth and the boys’ 14th.
“The early season meets and, especially, the big meets are a double-edged sword because, while the team would like to do extremely well, I’m generally more interested in doing early season training, with intensity high and volume rather than tapering for competitions. The goal is to get our best results in late October and November. Despite racing with tired legs, there were some positive results for a number of runners,” said head coach Kevin Fitzgerald.
The carnival is one of the biggest meets of the year and features over 800 runners in seven different race classifications. The Highlanders competed in the 5K championship class.
The boys race started at 08:30 with 122 runners from 15 schools. The field featured outstanding runners from North and South Carolina.
Sophomore Noah Clancy was the first Mountaineer to finish, placing 54th in 18:37. Freshman Austin Thomas competed in his first competitive race and finished 111th. Double athletes Henry Sutton (senior; football) and Hunter Sollie (sophomore; football) ran 104th and 106th.
The Highlanders finished 14th as a team.
110 runners from 15 teams participated in the girls’ race. Senior Eva Rinker continued her impressive career run by running 16th in 20:56. Sophomore Luci Snyder-Lowe and junior Alexis Stevenson turned in outstanding performances, placing 39th and 42nd overall.
The Tuscola girls placed six runners in the top 71 to finish eighth as a team.
Fitzgerald noted the excellent split times for the girls team. The split times are the difference between the times of the first place finisher for the team and that of the fifth place finisher for the team. The split time for the girls was 1:31.
The Mountain Runners return on September 13 for the Smoky Mountain Watermelon Run.
