On Saturday November 9, the Christ Church Cross Country teams participated in the state meet at Sandhills in South Carolina with the girl’s team placing fifth and the boy’s team placing second, only two points behind the first place team, St. Joseph’s. On the girl’s team, Emily Anderson came in 62nd place individually, Abbie Posta 54th, Mackenzie Patterson 49th, Isabel Pentaleri 40th, Lydia Swofford 20th, and Kendal Kipper in tenth place. On the boy’s team, Alex Goldsmith placed 14th, A.J. McCallum 13th, Worth Gentry 12th, Walker Cullen fourth, and James Quattlebaum first in the race overall with a time of 15:15.15.

James Quattlebaum is the first cross country runner in the state to come in first place at the state championship meet four years in a row. In addition, all runners that placed in the top 15 individually are named All-State players. The Christ Church All-State runners for this year are Walker Cullen, Worth Gentry, Alex Goldsmith, Kendall Kipper, A.J. McCallum, and James Quattlebaum. Although the teams did not win first in state championship, the runners’ individual performances are highly commendable.

The Sandhills course itself is fairly flat, making it easier for the racers to run fast. The hardest section of the course is the large sandhill, hence the name Sandhills. For this particular course, the Christ Church runners used a strategy to help them make faster times. Cross country runner Liam Barr states that the best strategy is to “save energy for the big hill two thirds of the way into the race, and go all out after the hill.” This strategy of using a steady pace for the majority of the course and finishing off strong worked well for the runners, as is evident in their improved times for the race.

“Overall the cross country season was successful,” comments Varsity Cross Country runner Worth Gentry. Although the Cross Country team did not win the state championship this year, the team stayed steady throughout the season and gave a great performance at the playoffs. This season was more of a learning season since many of the team members were new to cross country. The new runners include Liam Barr, Jack Gallivan, Alex Goldsmith, Isabel Pentaleri, Will Sanchelli, Michael Stone, and France Wavro. Even though they had never tried cross country before, these racers proved to be vital additions to the team and made up for the loss of last year’s seniors. Now that all the racers have gained experience in this sport, the team will be stronger and more prepared for next season. Hopefully if the cross country team continues to work hard, Christ Church has a great chance of winning the 2014 championship.