September 6, 2003

Some of us are morning people, some are not. However, we all arrived at Grady by 5:30 AM to travel to Rome, GA for the annual invitational race at Berry College. By 7:00 we were setting up our tent, warming up, pinning on numbers, and changing into racing shoes. At 8:00 the girls lined up with 32 schools from 3A and 4A classifications. We decided to race against the larger schools so we could get some better competition and cooler temperatures. We got both as the temperature was around 65o F, and the top ranked schools in the state were entered with us. The girls ran very well with all girls running best times, and a team finish of 16th. Kiah Vernon finished 5th overall with a strong performance.

The boys ran at 8:40 against a similar field of 33 teams. They had a great race also, placing 11th overall. Nick Stephens won the race with a very fast last lap, with Saji Girvan kicking in at 10th place. Other team members ran personal best times. Following is a listing of times and places for all 10 members of each team.

Boys Girls Nick Stephens 16:05 1 Kiah Vernon 20:21 5 Saji Girvan 16:46 10 Rebecca Tolmach 22:39 61 Nick Ward 18:22 68 Amelia Godfrey 23:25 89 Daniel Montagne 19:22 125 Sally Zintak 25:29 182 Sean Corley 19:56 167 Carson Hale 25:32 184 Wes Vernon 19:59 168 Rachel Caldas 25:35 187 Collier Johnson 20:04 174 Breanne Benedict 25:39 191 Sam Garr 20:28 Sarah Muntzing 27:08 Stone Irvin 23:19 Amanda Haimes 27:31 Jeffrey Carpenter 23:22 Katherine Hagan 27:43

11th of 33 teams 16th of 32 teams 311 runners 280 runners

-- Jeff Cramer (jcramer@mindspring.com), September 07, 2003