This past weekend, a select few area runners made the trip up to North Carolina to compete in the Footlocker South Region Meet and the Nike Cross Country Southeast Region Meet (NXN Southeast). With their regular season races just fading memories, these athletes found the strength to push on another week, competing for further glory in the post season.

The Chiles girls ran in the NXN Southeast Meet, held in Cary, North Carolina, hoping to gain a berth to the national meet in Eugene, Oregon. Unfortunately, they seemed to have an off-day, finishing eighth overall; out of reach of qualifying for Nationals. Normal front runner, Jodie McGuff, was battling an injury, leaving her in the seventh spot instead of her normal top five position. Despite their setbacks, however, the Timberwolves still had quite an impressive showing. They were led by freshman, Carly Thomas, who finished seventeenth overall with a time of 18:28. Teammate, Lily Williams, finished in twenty-third with an 18:41. Rounding out the top three for Chiles was senior, Kaia Hampton, who ran a time of 18:46, good enough for twenty-fifth place. The Timberwolves have had a terrific season and will no doubt be a formidable force for years to come.

170 miles southwest of NXN, Maclay’s Jana Stolting and Leon’s Matt Mizereck and Will Stanford readied themselves for the Footlocker South Regional Cross Country Meet at McAlpine Park. Temperatures hovered around forty degrees and rain began to fall as Stolting lined up for the seeded girls’ race. The course, normally famous for producing blazing times, was swamped from the heavy rains of the night before. For once it seemed this would be a real cross country meet rather than a track meet in disguise. And what’s a real cross country meet without some blood? There was spiking galore and a few downed runners, including south Florida’s senior phenom, Ashley Brasovan. Amazingly, however, Brasovan popped back up and went on to take fourth (in 17:20), bloody knees and all, securing her a spot at the national meet in San Diego. Stolting emerged from the battle sans bloody knees, finishing twenty-ninth overall (the fourth Florida finisher) in a time of 18:17.
The skies had cleared some by the time the gun went off for the seeded boys’ race, but the course was still a virtual slog-fest. Leon’s Matt Mizereck fought hard, finishing just out of a qualifying spot in a heartbreaking eleventh place, with a time of 15:23. Teammate, Will Stanford, finished in thirteenth place with a time of 15:26. Both of these young men have made the Big Bend proud and will undoubtedly be returning to Footlocker with a vengeance next year.

The post season meets have finally drawn to a close, brining an end to the 2008 high school cross country season. It has been a fantastic year for the Big Bend; a year of breakouts and breakthroughs, trials and triumph. It has been a joy both to take part in and to report on the great sport of cross country. I can no longer hazard a guess as to what surprises will await us this track season, but I can guarantee that they will be both numerous and significant- records will fall, teams will rise to the occasion, and the rubber oval will never be the same.