The slate of XC races that Bob Jones participates in is normally confined to North Alabama. Various places in Lawrence, Madison, and Jackson counties are our most common locations. However, this year was different. For the first time in at least six years, our top ten runners would be traveling to Cartersville, GA, to participate in the Wingfoot Classic. The Wingfoot Classic is an absolute mammoth of a race, larger than even the Southern Showcase, with 165 teams registering for the race. The top ten participated in the “Classic” race so that our top 10 could run together instead of being split since the Varsity A race was limited to seven per team. We headed down to Cartersville on Friday the 20th and raced early in the morning on the 21st.
The Results
Varsity Classic 5K *Note: The course was about .08 miles too long, so subtract 20 seconds off everyone’s time for accurate results.
Place, Name and Grade – Time
17. Roman Hanson (10) – 17:31.20
23. Owen Lang (12) – 17:43.00
29. Jake Bryan (11) – 17:51.60
48. Caleb Johnson (12) – 18:17.70
87. Owen Johnston (10) – 19:10.70
102. Jackson Clemons (12) – 19:24.70
114. Jacob Sigler (12) – 19:32.50
186. Alex Horn (11) – 20:35.10
215. Sawyer Andrews (11) – 20:56.10
N/A. Eric Joy (12) – DNF, Hamstring
Total Runners: 311
Team Scores
Place, Team – Score, Average
1. Lumpkin County (GA) – 130, 17:15
2. Oxford (AL) – 217, 18:03
3. Bob Jones – 228, 18:05
4. Hebron Christian (GA) – 246, 17:58
Total Teams: 56
WEATHER: High-60s, sunny. WIND: Minimal
Analysis
I will say this: If I hadn’t gotten injured, we would’ve gotten second place and likely had an average in the high 17s. Otherwise, this was a strange race. Our top runners performed either well or average, but our back end didn’t perform so well for the most part. Despite this, our overall performance was alright if you adjusted our times to how fast they would’ve been if the course wasn’t long.
The overall winner of the Wingfoot Classic was Tommy Latham, a runner from Marist (GA), who overcame an Alverson lead to run an astounding 14:56. If the course wasn’t long, we could be looking at a ~14:30. In addition, our girls team won their race. Good on them!
“Hey! Where are the rest of the boys? You said only the top ten went to GA!”
Indeed, I did. The rest of the team went to the Athens Bible School Invitational, and an interesting element of that particular race is that it happens at night – a rarity in the XC world. The course is extremely flat, although the 2-mile course may have been a bit long. For the first time in the history of Bob Jones (at least in the past 6 years), we had 7th graders run the 5K – them being Schultz and Sanders; our JV “Big Three,” Meeker, Lehmann, and Hughes, also ran the 5K. Woolley also manned up and ran the 5K.
Varsity 5k Results
Place, Name and Grade – Time
25. Micah Meeker (8, JMS) – 19:51.34
31. Liam Culver (12) – 20:20.34
32. Chase Lehmann (8, DMS) – 20:21.79
35. Bowen Hughes (8, DMS) – 20:56.24
38. Mark Frederickson (11) – 21:17.52
40. Caleb Cooke (10) – 21:36.80
41. Nathan Schultz (7, DMS) – 21:46.84
48. Bowen Caves (12) – 22:23.94
49. Jackson Stokes (10) – 22:32.58
51. Pedro Henriquez (10) – 22:42.26
54. Jack Sanders (7, DMS) – 23:12.90
56. Carson Drake (11) – 23:29.42
59. Wyatt Woolley (8, DMS) – 23:34.78
60. Thomas Sigler (12) – 23:44.01
63. Whitman Haynes (12) – 23:53.14
66. Apaulo Crandall (11) – 24:04.59
68. Daniel Isabor (12) – 24:22.63
Total Runners: 73
Team Scores:
Place, Team – Score, Average
4. Ardmore – 112, 20:06
5. Bob Jones – 143, 20:33
6. DAR – 150, 21:38
Total Teams: 7
WEATHER: Low-60s, dark. WIND: Minimal
Analysis
Unlike the results from Cartersville, these are excellent all-around. “Christmastime” descended on the Bob Jones tent after this race, for Culver PR’d by over a minute. Moreover, nearly every runner ran a PR of some sort. Our 7th graders, Schultz and Sanders, both ran excellent times for their age, and Meeker is the first middle-schooler to run under 20:00 in three years. As for the team score, that was to be expected. What team in any sport, and especially in an extremely hierarchical sport like XC, would perform well without any of their top players? Florida State can attest to that.
JV 2-mile Results
Place, Name and Grade – Time
19. Davis Joy (8, DMS) – 12:47.90
21. James White (9) – 12:51.07
23. Dean Charman (7, DMS) – 13:03.22
27. Sabin Stokes (9) – 13:13.21
28. Brooks van Dam (9) – 13:14.89
31. Jack Walker (7) – 13:35.86
32. Clayton Bruns (9) – 13:37.01
35. Dean Moss (9) – 13:43.81
48. Will Tennille (7, DMS) -16:13.92
50. Sean Osterhout (7, JMS) – 16:50.79
56. Jack Johnston (7, JMS) – 20:00+
57. Sheldon Elmore (9) – 20:00+
58. Wyatt Valent (9) – 20:00+
Team Scores
Place, Team – Score, Average
1. Huntsville – 21, 11:32
2. Grissom – 64, 12:48
3. Bob Jones – 75, 13:02
4. Sparkman – 82, 13:08
Total Teams: 8
WEATHER: Mid-60s, dusk. Wind: Minimal
Analysis
Similar to the varsity runners from this race, the JV performed admirably given their circumstances. Missing many of their top 3 runners, nearly beating Grissom and beating Sparkman is an exceptional result, considering those schools ran their JV teams at full strength.
End of Results
