Cross Country: SCTCCCA Coaches Classic 2012

Sep 9, 2012 by Greg Fowler

The Coaches Classic is the largest high school cross country meet in the state of South Carolina.  On Saturday, September 8, almost every high school in South Carolina sent teams to the meet.  Seven races covered 4 varsity and 3 junior varsity divisions.  For a break down of the results you can click here.

One of the best things about this meet is seeing the slogans the teams have come up with to put on the back of t-shirts.  Last year, I wrote a post about this and posted pictures. You can find that here:http://palmettostaterunner.com/?p=515.

This year there didn’t seem to be as many slogan shirts, so I only took one picture, but it I think it sums up running pretty well:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you can, go check out a high school cross country meet in your area.  These kids will inspire you.

For more South Carolina cross country coverage check out http://sc.milesplit.com.

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Way to Go Wildcats Cross Country Teams!

Nov 6, 2011 by Greg Fowler

On November 5th, the Lexington High School Cross Country teams came oh so close to a sweep in the 4A division of the South Carolina State Cross Country Championships.

Congratulations to the boys team for their 3rd consecutive championship.  With an impressive total of only 34 points, they finished head of 2nd place Stratford (76 points) and Wando (141 points).

Roland Hakes of Dutch Fork finished first indivdually, with a time of 15:10!  Wow!

The Lexington Girls team scored 95 points but finished 2nd to Wando High’s 68 points.

Here is a link to more coverage at SCRunners.com: http://sc.milesplit.com/meets/95878 and The State newspaper: http://www.thestate.com/2011/11/05/2036348/lexington-cross-country-boys-win.html#storylink=addthis

They Wildcat boys were also recently ranked 5th in the nation: http://www.xcnation.com/championshiprankings#!__championshiprankings/page-3

Congratulations, Wildcats!  It has been a pleasure watching you this year.  I’m already looking forward to 2012!

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Cross Country: SCTCCCA Coaches Classic 2011

Sep 11, 2011 by Greg Fowler

This past weekend, I attended what I think is annually the largest cross country meet in South Carolina.  Over 70 schools from across the state descend on the Sandhills Research Center in Columbia, SC.  The runners compete in 7 divisions, 4 varsity and 3 Junior Varsity.  For a break down of the finishes, you can click here.

Thundering Herd

This year the organizers broke the JV boys division into two divisions, 7th-9th grades and 10th-12th grades.  In previous years, this race had over 800 boys in it.  I had hoped to show you a video of the 800 person stampede of a start.  However, with the split, my video here is of the 7th-9th grade division and probably has 300+ in it.  I still think you get the idea.  That’s quite a start.

T-shirts

One thing I’ve noticed at cross country meets is the clever t-shirts the teams have come up with.  I took pictures at Coaches Classic to share:

 

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2011 Cross Country Season Begins

Aug 30, 2011 by Greg Fowler

Plans change.  Last week I was planning to do a 10 miler on Saturday.  Over 2 months since my last double digit run, I was anxious to get to that distance again.  Late in the week, though, we found out our son would be making the Saturday trip with the cross country team to a season-opening meet in North Carolina.  10 miler out the window.  No big deal.

So, we ventured to McAlpine Creek Park in Charlotte to watch our Lexington (SC) Wildcats compete with about 40 other high schools in the Providence Invitational Cross Country meet. This post is not about tooting the horn for South Carolina’s two-time defending 4A state champs in Cross Country, Lexington (The varsity boys won!), or their #1 runner Colby Coulter (he finished first) or the fact my son, running as part of the JV team, cut over a minute off his PR (I’ll never catch him now!)

No, this post is to encourage you to get out and watch a cross country meet this fall.  For the next 2 months, there are many meets each week in any area of the country, probably on a Tuesday or Wednesday night.  Sometimes, there are Saturday meets with larger fields, like this past weekend.

Around here, the race distance for high schools is 5K (3.1 miles).  At any one meet, there will be 3-4 separate races – varsity boys, varsity girls, JV boys and JV girls.  Sometimes, JV boys and girls run at the same time.  Usually there is no cost to enter, either.  I have had to pay for parking once or twice.

You will be inspired by these young people, from the top veteran kids who battle it out at sub 16:00 times, to the newbie runners struggling to finish.  I always leave a meet wanting to go for a run and kicking myself for not running cross country in high school.

To learn more about cross  country in South Carolina go to http://www.scrunners.com.

For a comprehensive schedule of South Carolina cross country events click here.

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