Results of the Bulldog Stampede Cross Country Invitational Saturday, September 20, 10:40, 11:10

Hurricane Isabel missed us this weekend and we appreciated the clear weather. We expected cool temperatures as we planned or our trip to Athens, but it was already warm at 7:30am when we left Grady to travel to the University of Georgia Golf Course. It was a beautiful morning, a perfect venue, good competition, but it was quite hot.

The boys ran first at 10:40. With 26 teams in the race (258 runners) our team managed to finish 4th overall. Nick Stephens won the race by over 20 seconds and Saji Girvan nearly made it a 1-2 finish as he sprinted shoulder to shoulder to the line with a Cartersville runner. We were very pleased with his 3rd place.

The girls' race was even hotter as they started at 11:10. After pouring ice water over their heads to cool off they started up the first hill. Kiah Vernon took the lead after the first mile and pulled away from the rest of the field to win by about 45 seconds. Rebecca Tolmach moved past 15 runners in the last mile to earn a 9th place medal. The team was 6th in a race with 18 teams.

This was a very difficult course, very hilly with an overall gain in elevation from start to finish. Many of our athletes ran personal best times in spite of the challenge of hills and heat. The team celebrated Amelia Godfrey's birthday with cake, had lunch together at the local McDonalds, then rode big yellow back to the city. Following are times and places for our whole team.

Next race is at Grant Park, Wednesday at 5:15

Nick Stephens 1 17:01 Kiah Vernon 1 20:51 Saji Girvan 3 17:26 Rebecca Tolmach 9 23:08 Nick Ward 30 19:14 Amelia Godfrey 51 26:04 Daniel Montagne 49 20:04 Leslie MacDowell55 26:14 Collier Johnson 80 20:47 Carson Hale 74 27:00 Sean Corley 88 20:57 Jordan Echols 122 30:53 Wes Vernon 92 21:04 Virginia Jordan 130 31:39 Walker Rick 111 21:34 Chelsea Cook 132 32:00 Stone Irvin 144 22:26 Amanda Lochridge138 32:45 Matt Westmoreland170 23:15 Rebecca Gittelson144 33:42 Zach Johnson 198 24:31 Elly Bookman 151 34:41 4th place of 26 teams 6th place of 18 teams 258 runners 169 runners

-- Jeff Cramer (jcramer@mindspring.com), September 20, 2003

Answers

Sorry, I missed one name on the results list. Lillian Van finished 134th in a time of 32:36. Congrats Lillian.

Jeff Cramer

-- Jeff Cramer (jcramer@mindspring.com), September 20, 2003.