Cross country teams continue improvement

The LCHS cross country team continued to improve when the Indians and Lady Indians competed in the Indian Invitational and the Runners Fit Mountain Invitational last week.
The team started the week with its lone home meet of the 2019 season on Monday, Sept. 30, at LCHS.
The Lady Indians earned themselves a first place team finish at the meet when they placed five runners in the Top 10.
As she has done all season for the Lady Indians, Abbie Hilchie continued to run strong during the 2019 season with a first place individual finish at the Indian Invitational. Hilchie battled the heat, a tough group of competitors and a brutal course to earn the first place finish, completing the race in 23 minutes and 24 seconds (23:24).   
Caroline Rairigh, Elvia Garcia, Tatianna Lovell and Emily Martinez also ran well for the Lady Indians at the meet, with each finishing in the Top 10.
Rairigh earned herself a second place individual finish with a time of 24:36, Garcia secured fifth place overall with a time of 25:15, Lovell ran her way to an eighth place individual finish with a time of 26:35 and Martinez earned a ninth place finish with a time of 26:36.
The sensational running by the Lady Indians allowed the team to secure the top spot in the team standings.
The Indians received strong performances from Kyle Trammell, Westley Adams, Laken Ferrell and Will Edwards at the Indian Invitational in order to secure a third place team finish at the event.
Trammell led the way for the Indians with a fifth place overall finish. Trammell traversed the difficult course with a time of 20:09. Adams followed right behind Trammell with a ninth place overall finish with a time of 20:39. Ferrell earned himself a 12th place individual finish with a time of 20:58 and Edwards rounded out the top four Lumpkin runners at the event with an 18th place overall finish with a time of 21:45.
The LCHS cross country team followed its strong showing at the Indian Invitational by competing in the Runners Fit Mountain Invitational at Unicoi State Park on Thursday, Oct. 3.
With 32 competing schools on the boys’ side and 26 competing schools on the girls’ side, the Runners Fit Mountain Invitational proved to be a matchup of some of the best runners in the area.
The Lady Indians ran their way to a 13th place team finish at the event thanks in large part to a solid performance by Hilchie.
Hilchie continued to run strong for Lumpkin with an 18th place individual finish with a time of 21:26 out of the 177 runners who took part in the race.
However, the bunching between Lumpkin’s top runner and the rest of the top four for the team was too spread out for the Lady Indians to move up in the team standings.
Rairigh came in second for the Lady Indians with a 57th place individual finish, running the course in a time of 23:10. Garcia and Lovell rounded out the top four runners for Lumpkin at the event with a 71st and 104th finish respectively.
LCHS head cross country coach Nicky Jenkins said that the team will need to continue to work on cutting the time between Lumpkin’s top runner and the rest of the top four runners if the team is to have a strong showing at the upcoming Region Championship Meet.
“Our individual times have improved almost every race,” said Jenkins. “Our goal is to get our top seven runners as close in time as we can get. The closer the times of each runner, the better your team will score.”
The Indians kept their race times close, but the fierce competition made it difficult for Lumpkin to place high as a team. The Indians earned a 26th place team finish out of the 32 competing schools at the event.
Trammell once again led the charge for the Indians with an 89th place individual finish out of the 212 runners taking part in the Runners Fit Mountain Invitational. Trammell finished the race with a time of 18:44.
Adams, Ferrell and Edwards all finished within a minute and 11 seconds after Trammell completed the race. Adams earned a 115th place finish with a time of 19:25, Ferrell finished in 121st place with a time of 19:35 and Edwards earned himself a 135th place finish with a time of 19:55.
Despite not being higher up in the team standings, Jenkins believes that the team’s performances during the week are a good step towards meeting the team’s goal of making the State Championship Meet.
“We are pushing both teams daily to make the State Meet,” Jenkins said. “It’s something we can accomplish, but there is still a lot of work to do.”
LCMS:
Although the LCMS cross country team finished its 2019 season with the Mountain League Championship Meet the week previous, the team took part in the Indian Invitational and its eighth grade runners took part in the Runners Fit Mountain Invitational at Unicoi State Park last week as well.
The LCMS Indians ran their way to a first place finish at the Indian Invitational when they captured the top three spots in individual performances at the meet.
Wyatt Windham, Ben Sherrill and Will Routhier all finished in the top three at the event. Windham earned himself a first place finish, Sherrill earned a second place finish and Routhier earned a third place finish.
On the girls’ side, the Lady Indians captured second place in the team standings at the Indian Invitational behind the strong running of Ryann Jones, who earned a third place individual finish at the meet.
The eighth grade members of the LCMS cross country team went on to compete in the Runners Fit Mountain Invitational on Thursday, Oct. 3, in what would be their final meet as a member of the team.
The LCMS runners ran in the event as part of the LCHS JV team.
On the girls’ side, Jones and Caroline Schmid both put in strong performances at the event. Jones finished fourth overall out of the 151 girls competing in the race and Schmid earned herself a 49th place finish.
On the boys’ side, Sherrill sped his way to a first place finish for the LCHS JV team with a 59th place individual finish at the event. Sherrill showed speed, endurance and maintained a solid pace to earn the 59th place spot out of the 313 runners competing in the race.
Up Next:
At press time, the LCHS cross country team was set to compete at Riverside Military Academy on Tuesday, Oct. 8. No official results were available.
The Indians and Lady Indians will get back into action when they travel to Jasper, Ga. to take part in the Pickens Invitational this Saturday, Oct. 12, in the teams’ final regular season meet before the Region Championships.