Photo by Andy Warrener
The battle of the big schools was a close contest for both boys and girls races. The girls race was the very first race of the chilly morning that saw frost on the ground for six of the eight races run on Saturday. It's a long, grassy downhill chute to start so runners that vied for position out of the gates rarely held the line for the 5,000 meters. Rafaella Gibbons, just a freshman, led the front group through the first split at 5:37.7 with St. Thomas Aquinas' Alexa Cruz and Lake Brantley's Sinclaire Johnson all packed in.
It was the same three coming down the crushed limestone path for the second time, nearing the two-mile mark. The first trip, "over the wall" had the trio neck-and-neck but the second trip over the wall saw Gibbons make a move that Cruz and Johnson could not contend with.
"I knew Sinclaire has good speed and I wanted to separate from her," Gibbons said. "I knew the hill would be a good place to go....
