Varsity cross country continues solid season

The LCHS cross country team continued to build and improve on its times when the Indians and Lady Indians competed in the Gilmer County Cross Country Invitational on Tuesday, Sept. 17.
“We have gotten off to a good start to the year,” said LCHS head cross country coach Nicky Jenkins. “We have a lot of kids competing against each other for the top seven spots on the team. For the boys, this has been changing weekly. The competition we’ve ran against has been very good. And, our individual times have improved almost every race.”
The Lady Indians enjoyed a first place team finish at the Gilmer County Cross Country Invitational behind Top 10 finishes by Abbie Hilchie and Caroline Rairigh.
Hilchie, who has proven to be one of Lumpkin’s strongest competitors this season, traversed the course at Gilmer County against a host of solid runners and earned herself a third place individual finish.
“Abbie [Hilchie] has been very consistent,” Jenkins said. “She has a fifth place out of 93 runners, a 16th place out of 113 runners, a 17th place out of 134 runners and a third place out of 93 runners so far this season. The best thing is she has set personal goals that she hasn’t reached yet.”
Following not far behind Hilchie was her teammate Rairigh. Rairigh, who has been one of Lumpkin’s most consistent runners in the past couple seasons, sped her way to a sixth place individual finish at the event.
Hilchie’s third place finish and Rairigh’s sixth place finish combined with a 13th place, 20th place and 24th place finish allowed the Lady Indians to earn a team score of 66. The score was low enough to allow the team to earn the top spot at the meet.
On the boys’ side, the Indians didn’t fare as well at the Gilmer County Cross Country Meet but still saw one of their runners break into the Top Five in individual performances.
Jorge Romero displayed his perseverance, speed and desire to win when he raced his way to a fifth place individual finish at the event.
The biggest problem for the Indians this season has been the spacing between the team’s top seven runners, something that Jenkins believes both the Indians and Lady Indians will need to work on if they are to accomplish their goals of reaching the State championship meet.
“Our goal is to get our top seven runners as close in time as we can,” Jenkins said. “When we started the season, our number one runner was close to seven minutes ahead of our seventh place runner. That’s great for the number one runner, but not great for the team. We have basically cut that time in half.”
Despite the strides the team has already taken, Jenkins knows that in order to make a strong push towards the Region Championship and to earn a spot at the State Championship the team will need to continue to works towards cutting their times even further, especially given the strength of the region.
“We are pushing both teams daily to make the State meet,” Jenkins said. “For that to happen, the team has to finish in the top four at the region championship. It’s something we can accomplish, but there’s still a lot of work to do. There are some very good teams in our region.”
The LCHS cross country team will be back in action when they host the Indian Run Invitational at LCHS on Monday, Sept. 30. Start time for the boys race is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. with the start of the girls race following afterward at 5 p.m.