Cougar JV Runners Close Season

Thirty-seven Class A, AA and AAA schools, bringing close to 500 junior varsity cross country runners, converged on the Stratford Academy campus in Macon last week for the GISA state meet.

The annual championship run is a highly anticipated race where young runners test their skills against both long-standing regional rivals and distant teams they are facing for the first time all season. Piedmont Academy returned home with a seventh place team finish, a top 10 medal, and several new personal records.

Piedmont’s JV girls competed in the A/AA division in a field of 110 runners. Piedmont is one of the few teams running just five athletes this year, the minimum number allowed.

“Since only the first five finishers from each team are scored, and that’s all we’ve got, we need top performances from each of them,” said coach Traci Brady. “It’s a lot of responsibility.”

The 1.65 mile Stratford course begins with a fast 100-meter charge across an athletic field before banking sharply into the woods, where it winds through a more technically challenging series of rocky hills for the first mile. Unable to break free of the pack in the opening sprint, PAC front-runner Alina Jablonski had to rely heavily on strategic passing in the woods to gain back some ground.

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“We’ve had some good hill workouts recently and Alina’s a power runner anyway,” Brady said. “She doesn’t have to gear down for hills like weaker runners do. She reached the top six girls by the time she got through the woods.

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An increase in speed for the last half mile of mostly flat, open terrain landed her a solid fourth place finish in 10:27, edging out last year’s winner by one second.

Teammates Mari Jablonski and Emily Mills entered the woods about a third of the way back in the pack.

“Mari has strong endurance and recovery, and can start slower but pass steadily throughout the length of the race, despite terrain,” said Brady.

Still passing in the last 50 meters, she finished 13th overall with a time of 11:09.

“Emily is more comfortable with shorter bursts of high speed, so she holds back until closer to the finish. She has a devastating ending sprint,” said her coach.

Mills finished in a commendable 27th place with a time of 11:39.

Gracie Black was next for Piedmont, finishing in a solid 13:53 for 77th place.

“Gracie worked hard this year, “Brady said. She improved the most of all our runners over last year and I’m excited to see what next year holds for her.”

Anne Marie Hildebrant rounded out the race for the team with a time of 14:45 and 92nd place.

“Anne Marie is very experienced,” said Brady. “She can be counted on to carry through, even on challenging courses. She doesn’t quit.”

The girls team finished in seventh place with an average time of 12:25.

The boys races followed, with 126 runners in Piedmont’s A/AA division.

With only four JV boys running this year, Piedmont cannot field a team and competed instead as individuals, all earning new personal bests.

Owen Brady and Garrett King led the way, setting a pace around 6:50 per mile.

Brady was first to finish in 11:21 and 46th place, almost a minute faster than last year. King was close behind in 50th place and 11:26 almost two minutes faster than last year.

“These are incredible leaps in improvement,” said Coach Brady.

Chase Tweedell followed in 11:44 and 64th place, his fastest pace all year and a half minute improvement over last year.

“He’ll do very well on the varsity team next year,” said his coach.. Newcomer Mason Mize, who joined XC at the start of the school year, ran his best race all season, finishing in 11:59 and 72nd place.

“I was stunned,” said Brady. “It’s how every runner dreams of ending the season.”

Overall, it was a standout season for the JV runners.

“I am so proud of all of them,” said Brady. “Cross country is unique among sports in that doing it well relies almost completely on pre-season training. It takes the body a minimum of several months of consistent training to begin to make the changes necessary to efficiently process energy and build stamina.

A couple of these kids literally run five days a week all summer to prepare to race. With the time and dedication this team is giving the sport, they have a great future ahead of them.”

Piedmont Academy’s varsity team is scheduled to compete Thursday in the Region 4-AA meet hosted by Oak Mountain in Carrollton.