On Tuesday, October 23, the Cross Country team headed to Webb Bridge Park for the GHSA 7AAAAAA Region Championships. This was the last meet in which all cross country runners, regardless of their experience and running level, got to participate. The defending state champions both earned 2nd place to lock in another trip to the state meet on November 2.
The gun started the first race at 11am, with the open boys and girls running in a single race. 285 runners from the 9 schools in 6A region 7 finished the race, with the Cambridge boys finishing in first place, and the Cambridge girls taking second. The first place win was with an incredible score of just 16 points, with the boys' team led by Justin Doering ('21). Justin took an early lead and held onto it for the entire 5k race. His teammates followed to capture 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 8th place and 10th place. Helping secure the first place victory for the open boys were Chris Manna ('19), Noah Bouton ('19), Ethan Blalock ('20), Matthew DiPietro ('21), and Will Goldscheitter ('19). Katie Malone ('22) also took an early lead for the girls, and finished over a minute ahead of any other girl to capture first place individually. She was followed by Paige Consolo ('22), Madeline Matthews ('22), Sarah Meredith ('22), Disha Baglodi ('22) and Amber Brown ('19), all finishing in the top 20, and concluding their season with 2nd place as a team.
The second race of the day was the girls' JV race, with the Lady Bears bringing home the first place trophy with a nearly perfect score of 17. Senior and Captain Delaney Goodell led the way by over a minute for first place, followed by Lola Merrill ('21), Michaela Prevallet ('21), Emily Meeker ('22) in second, third and fourth place. Faith Hirschi ('22) completed the scoring for Cambridge with a 7th place finish. Captain Amanda Leekley ('19) and Kyra Gould ('22) finished in 10th and 15th for seven runners in the top 20.
The JV boys also brought home a first place trophy, beating Pope by 18 points with a score of 39. The Bears' top finisher was Adam Schaich ('20), who finished in second place overall. Six other runners raced to make it in the top 20: Colby Jones ('21) in 4th, Alex Tebeau ('22) in 8th, Caelan Jones ('21) in 12th, Kaine Dudley ('21) in 13th, and Kyler Wilson ('19), Rishi Murudkar ('19) and Will Carrow ('20) in 16th-18th.
State qualification came down to the last two races of the afternoon. In the girls' varsity race, defending champion, Ashley Sechrest ('20) took the lead in the first lap and continued to widen it, finishing 45 seconds ahead of second place. Senior Grace Gerlach finished in 3rd, followed by Captain Clarissa Beck ('19) in 8th, Afton Hirschi ('20) in 13th and Izzy Filipek ('21) in 23 to close out the scoring. Isabel Suero ('19) and Kathryn Suplee ('21) finished right behind Izzy in 24th and 25th to complete the roster of 7. Unfortunately, the reigning 2017 region champion team was spread apart just a bit too much, finishing four points shy of Pope's winning score. The good news is that the top four teams head on to state, so the Lady Bears have the motivation to defend their title in Carrollton on November 2, and show Pope they have what it takes to win.
Captain and senior Jack Filan led the varsity Bear's, bringing home his second individual Region 7 championship in the final race of the day. Like his predecessors earlier in the day, he took an early lead and continued to outpace the rest of the runners, finishing 26 seconds ahead of second place. His finish, scoring just one point, was not enough to earn the boys' their first region championship, and they fell short of their goal by 27 points to a very tightly packed squad from Pope. The varsity Bears' roster, in addition to Jack, included Lyle Donovan ('22) finishing in 8th, Anders Law ('20) in 12th, Captain Mark VanDeWater ('19) in 15th, Captain Carson Ertwine ('19) in 20th, Deacon Law ('20) in 26th, and Captain Sasha Severtson ('19) in 31st.
Make sure to congratulate all the cross country runners on a very successful season, and to wish the varsity runners all the best in their quest to defend their state titles on November 2!
Go Bears! #DefendTheBling
