Girls Overall Record:   13 - 7
Boys Overall Record:   20 - 1   

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October 17, 2007
CA @ Ravenscroft

Both the boys and girl’s middle school cross-country teams traveled to Ravenscroft yesterday to finish their respective seasons in a dual meet. We have developed quite the rivalry with Ravenscroft as on the girl’s side, they have defeated us twice this season by relatively close scores, and on the boy’s side we have been the only team this season to beat them in meets. 

The Chargers were thus faced with opponents who wanted to maintain their dominance over us (girl’s) and avenge defeats and were very fired up (boy’s). Ravenscroft was able to achieve both goals as our girls went down to defeat 20 – 35 (low score wins) and their boy’s kept us from going undefeated by besting us 23 – 32 (again, low score wins). 

Our kids were disappointed but we were able to point out the positives, they ran hard and were beaten by a better team on that given day. Give Ravenscroft their due and make no excuses, if you participate in competitive sports long enough, losses are inevitable and it’s how you handle them with grace that marks the character of true “winners.” Coach C also pointed out the improvement we have seen among our athletes, many of them were not even able to complete a 3000 meter course earlier in the season and at the end of the season were running great times and competing. Special kudos go out to Alex Coeytaux, who came off his “deathbed” to compete and run yesterday. 

All things considered, it’s been a wonderful season and there is much talent at the 8^th grade who will move on and contribute to our already strong varsity program, and a solid core of 7^th graders who with summer training can come back next season and help both teams defend our conference championships. In the case of Thomas Graham, he will now join the varsity team and race in both the TISAC championship race tomorrow and the state meet, so if you see him walking around the hallways, wish him luck. 

Final Boy’s Record:  20 – 1
Final Girl’s Record: 13 – 7

Individual Results from yesterday’s meet: 

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October 11, 2007
Conference Champions!

Those two words have a sweet ring to them. Both the Cary Academy Middle School boys and girl’s cross-country competed today at SAS Soccer Complex and won the inaugural Triangle Middle School’s Conference championship. Additionally we had individual champions in both the boy’s “A” race and the open “B” race to add icing to the cake.

Before the girl’s championship race, over 100 boys and girl’s from 10 teams competed in a non-scoring “B” race. Gaurav Judge was the individual winner in an outstanding time of 11:49 (he would have been our 4^th scorer and a top 15 finisher in the championship race!) in probably his strongest race this season. Outstanding performances were turned in by all our athletes in this race including Ivan Bobashev (16^th – 13:59), Ben Ramger (19^th – 14:09), Alex Ade (38^th – 15:15), Cannon Duke (41^st – 15:22), Rachel Earnhardt ( 43^rd and 3^rd girl finisher with a PR of 15:23), Josh Corn (60^th – 16:01), Patrick Lambert (61^st – 16:06), Channing Stuart (73^rd – PR and best race this season—16:26) and Elizabeth Strohbeck (75^th – another PR and awesome time—16:33).

The girls then lined up and 70 girls from 10 teams battled for the Invitational Championship and the Triangle Conference Championship. Of the 10 teams, four teams are not conference members so their scores counted toward the Invitational Championship but not the Conference Championship. The girls finished 4^th as a team in the Invitational Championship, but the three teams in front of us are not members of our conference, thus giving us the Conference championship. Anna Hamilton once again led the team with a 6^th place finish, followed by a 10^th place finish by our studly 7^th grader, Sydney Kalin. Juliette Parks came alive today and turned in one of her best times this season as well as Hannah Schwarz (34^th in a great time of 14:55).

Anna, Juliette, and Hannah have done an outstanding job showing leadership as 8^th graders, but we also bring back a very strong core of runners when we consider that Caroline Hooker (24^th) and Camila Kofman (27^th) and Corrina Egge (41^st) return with Sydney Kalin along with Rachel Earnhardt from the B race whose time would have placed her in the top 45 in this race.

Team and individual results from the girl’s race: 

Seventy boy’s then took the field and Cary Academy looked to win both the Invitational and Conference Championship and continue their quest to have an undefeated season. Thomas Graham also looked to continue his unbeaten streak as an individual runner this season. All three goals were met as the boys won both the Invitational and Conference Championship outright, while Thomas Graham won the boy’s race by over 20 seconds to his nearest competitor. Excellent and top ten performances were turned in by Alex Coeytaux (4^th) and Alex Touzov (9^th) , and the race was won because our next three guys beat out many other teams 4^th runner. All seven runners turned in strong performances, and special kudos go out to Joe Calder who has shown steady improvement throughout the year as well as Matt Rushin who is a strong candidate for our most improved boy’s runner.

Team and individual results from the boy’s race: 

One more race awaits us as we travel next week to Ravenscroft, where we look to finish outstanding seasons by both the girls and boys teams.

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October 3, 2007

The boys and the girls made it a clean sweep today in our race at Duke School. The girls were victors over St. Timothy’s School 20 – 48 (low score wins) as Duke School did not field a full team , while the boys continued their quest for an undefeated season by scoring 31 points versus 42 for St. Timothy’s and 57 for Duke School.

The girl’s season record is now 7 -3 while the boy’s season record is 11 – 0. Both teams compete at the conference meet next Thursday, and look to run well and hopefully take home conference championships in our inaugural year in the Triangle Middle Schools Conference.

Individual girl’s results for Cary Academy

Individual Boys Results:

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September 19, 2007

The boys and girl’s middle school cross-country teams traveled to Durham Academy yesterday and competed in their toughest race of the year. Conditions were beautiful and the meet was very efficiently managed and run. Ah the joys of an away meet for coaches! The DA course is a fast, flat, 1.4 mile course that is very spectator friendly as parents and coaches can see the runners compete for at least 40% of the total course. This race was a great experience for both teams as boys and girls really had to race and compete and work together. The DA coach paid our teams high compliments as he said both teams were tough and he was impressed on the course walk when our athletes were asking questions about where the 800 meter mark was, the mile, and discussing race strategy.  

That’s music to your coaches ears! 

The girls improved their record to 6-0 on the season by beating our rivals from Durham Academy and teams from St. Thomas Moore and Trinity School.  Scores from the girl’s race:
CA                          48
DA                          55
Trinity                   56
St. Thomas          91 

Fletcher Academy did not field a full team so record no team score. The girl’s won this race by virtue of having our top 7 girls finish in front of DA’s and Trinity’s fifth runner. For those unaware of how cross-country races are scored, low score wins and although only your top five runners score points according to their place in the race, your next two finishers can displace the other teams scorers. 

The strength of our girls teams is there is not a large gap in time between our top runner so far—Anna Hamilton and our 7^th runner yesterday, Hannah Schwarz, as she only finished 1:24 seconds behind Anna. If we can continue to stay within a narrow band of time in future races, our girls team will continue to be formidable opponents.  

Our girls individual results (46 runners competed): 

 The boy’s improved to 7-0  in a very impressive fashion starting with a sweep of the top three places by Thomas Graham, Alex Coeytaux, and Alex Touzov. Thomas obliterated the course record, but both Alex’s turned in outstanding races with Touzov holding off a Durham Academy runner in an impressing sprint to the finish line. Also we accomplished the feat of getting our next four and thus top seven runners in before our opponent’s 5^th runner, or more accurately, 4^th runner. Obviously, if our boys can sweep the top three places and have your next four runners finish in a pack separated by 15 seconds, and finish in the top 12 places out of 36 runners, that will yield great results. 

Team Results:
CA                          24
DA                          39
Trinity                   91
Fletcher               119 

Our boys individual results: 

 Thanks again to all parent volunteers for your support.

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September 12, 2007
CA hosts East Wake Academy, Triangle Day School, S. B. Howard

The Cary Academy boys and girls cross country teams both moved to 3-0 this season with resounding wins over Triangle Day School. The girls won the meet 16 – 51 (low score wins), while the boys beat TDS 17 – 66 (again lowest score wins). In fact the girls came close to a perfect score of 15 points which would is achieved if your top five runners place one through five, and the boys were also close to achieving the coveted sweep.

Anna Hamilton won the girls race in a fast time of 15:15, followed by Camila Kofman (16:14), Sydney Kalin (16:25), Caroline Hooker(16:45) with Juliette Parks capturing 6^th place and rounding out the scoring with a time of 17:10.

Other CA runners and their times are:
Hannah Schwarz               17:31
Corrina Egge                       19:06
Rachel Earnhardt              20:19
Elizabeth Strohbeck        20:34
Channing Stuart                21:53 

Anna by virtue of her first place finish become the Cary Academy  course record holder as we recently changed our course to 2 miles. 

The boys were lead by the blistering time of 11:40 turned in by Thomas Graham, an outstanding time for 2 miles. He also sets a course record. Thomas was followed by Alex Coeytaux (13:20), Alex Touzov (14:01), as the boys took the top 3 spots, and our scoring was rounded out by Gaurav Judge (14:49) and Matt Lee (14:54) who took 5^th and 6^th places.

Other finishers and times:
Joe Calder                           15:05
Andy Neiswender           15:10
Matt Rushin                       15:33
Ben Ramger                       17:23
Alex Ade                              18:43
Cannon Duke                     19:03
Josh Corn                            20:30
Patrick Lambert                21:35    

Full results and places are in the attached document. Thanks to all the parents who assisted with the running of the meet as it ran like a well-oiled machine. The boys and girls team hope to keep their undefeated season going next week when we go on the road next Thursday to a conference meet at the SAS Soccer Park to be hosted by Cary Christian School.