Posted by Troy Urquhart on November 16, 2011

On Saturday, November 12, the Cross Country team competed in the FHSAA 1A Region 2 Meet, marking the first time in recent history that the Eagles have advanced a team beyond district competition.

Ranked 10th entering the meet, the girls team was led by Freshman Ciara Hopkins, who ran 21:39 to take 23rd place. Maya Rifai and Tanner Dotson finished almost side-by-side in 22:18, a personal-record time for both runners. Addison Adkins finished in 23:17, with Susan Rifai just behind her in 23:33. Katie Young ran a personal best of 24:18, and Parinda Dechathipat brought the Eagles home with a time of 24:27. Overall, the girls took 9th in the team scoring with an average time of 22:37.

The boys team was led by Sophomore Conner Bergin, who battled an injury the entire race, finishing in 19:31. Just behind Bergin, Tyler Gehr ran a personal-best time of 19:37, breaking the 20-minute mark for the first time. Young Bum Yoo finished in 20:04, shaving five seconds off his personal record. Sang-Bin Park ran 21:31, and Brandon Pownall was just 13 seconds off his personal-record time with a finish of 24:00. In the sixth and seventh positions for the team, Brian Donnelly and Kaize Deng were neck-and-neck in a finishing sprint down the last 100 meters, with Donnelly (25:30) edging out Deng at the finish (25:31). The team entered the Region Meet ranked 12th and finished 11th in team scoring with an average time of 20:56.

Asked about the season, Coach Troy Urquhart said, "I'm pleased with the progress we've made with both teams this year, and I'm encouraged by the promise we have for the future. We have a great base established for the upcoming outdoor track season, and we'll graduate only one runner this year from our girls team, so we're looking forward to starting next year with a hardworking group of talented runners."