Canes Back to Racing Well after Lengthy Layoff

The Hurricanes were back in action close to home Saturday morning at WakeMed Soccer Park in the Great American XC Festival. This race comes after the last scheduled competition was cancelled due to weather, forcing the Cross Country teams into a month-long layoff.

 

The Men started out the morning strong in what was most of the young squad's first time racing the 8k distance. Devan Crow opened up his season and led the 'Canes with an 11th place finish in 25:26. He was followed by Henry Coddington in 19th place with a time of 25:49. The sole sophomore finishing the race for Louisburg, Dennis McCheskey, beat his previous personal best time by 1:30. He was joined under 28 minutes by Burch Greene, finishing with a time of 27:54. Kyle Owino rounded out the scoring for Louisburg to finish in 4th place in the team race.

 

Due to injuries the Women's team was not able to score as a team but saw large improvements from their last race. Adanna Thomas, Alana Morgan, and Imperial Harris came in one after another in 26th, 27th, and 28th places with everyone new season bests. Princess Johnson also ran a 3 minute season's best.

 

"I thought the Men handled the step up to 8k pretty well, especially for not racing in over a month. It was good to get Devan out there to open up his collegiate career and compete with the rest of the guys. Unfortunately on the Women's side we've had some injuries which prevented us from scoring a full team, however each one of the ladies ran a new season best. That still made for a positive experience racing this weekend," shared Coach Harvey. "The break in racing gave us a chance to get a really great training block in. I think you'll see this benefit us over the next month as we approach postseason competition."

 

The Hurricanes are back in action this Friday at McAlpine Creek Park in Charlotte, NC at the Royals XC Challenge. The women's race is scheduled for 4:30pm with the men to follow at 5:20pm.