High Country Classic

Wet, slippery, muddy racing for the first time this (or last) year.  River finished in second (16:55) with a great time given the hills and conditions to pace the boys' varsity to a second place team finish behind a Providence.  Matthew and Josh also finished in the top-10; and Grant and Price in the top-25.  Anna led the girls' varsity with a 21st place finish (21:45).  Emma B., Emma T., Nicole, Molly rounded out the scoring for a 7th place team finish.

John led the boy's JV with a 13th place finish and Hallie (16th) was the top finisher for the girl's JV.  Complete results here.  Racing photos here -Josh, where were you? 

High Country Classic Saturday

XC racing returns to Boone on Saturday starting with the open race at 9 am.  There will be 20+ teams competing on the latest version of the Watauga home course on the greenway.  Complete event schedule here.

Watauga Home Meet #1

Anna and River led the varsity squads to a sweep of local conference competitors with individuals wins on the first look at this year's version of the 5K home course.  The boys team claimed the first four finish places enroute to a convincing team win over second place Freedom.  Others scoring for the varsity squad included the usual suspects and Devin as the 5th scoring runner.  The girls team finished in three of the top five spots with Emma B., Emma T., Nicole, and Molly also scoring for varsity.  See complete results here. See Coach Shaw's photos here.

Knights Crossing Invitational

Pioneers XC headed to Salem, VA for a big invitational including some of the best teams in VA and NC.  The flat, fast course led to a number of season and career PR performances.  The boys varsity team finished 7th of 25 teams in the event's fastest heat, led by Matthew (21st, 16:37) and River (23rd, 16:38).  Also scoring for the varsity were Grant, Josh, and Price.  The girls varsity finished 18th of 23 and was paced by Anna (52nd, 21:25) and Emma B. (62nd, 21:35).  Emma T., Nicole, and Elizabeth also scored for the varsity squad.  Michael (46th, 19:23) and Emma Kate (53rd, 25:10) paced the respective JV squads.   Complete race results here. 

Ashe County Meet Results

In mid-week racing, the girls team led by Anna in first place (22:23), bested both Ashe and West Wilkes.  Emma B, Nicole, Emma T., and Barbara also scored for the Pioneers.  The boys squad finished in second place, led by Devin in third place (19:03).  Aiden, Isaac, Nick, Luke, and Sam also had top finishes for the boys squad.  See the story here.

Varisty Boys Team Win Caldwell Invitational; Girls Second

The weather was hot; the times were slow, but the varsity boy's squad topped twelve other teams to win the Caldwell Invitational.  River paced team -which appeared to be running as a pack for part of the race- in 2nd, followed by Josh (7th), Price (10th), Matthew(11th), Grant (21st), Elias (23rd), and Sam (27th).  Varsity girls finished second to an apparently warm weather acclimated Alexander Central team.  Finley led the girls in fifth, followed by Anna (13th), Emma B (14th), Ella (15th), Nicole (17th), Emma T (33rd), and Elizabeth (54th).

In the girl's open race, Hallie and Molly recorded top ten finishes, while Devin won the boy's open race and Daniel and Michael also recorded top ten finishes.  Photos of the even here.  Also find Coach Shaw's photos here.  Next up racing in West Jefferson at Ashe HS on Tuesday as the team prepares to travel to a big invitational on Saturday.

Schedule Changes

XC racing will continue today with the team headed to the Caldwell Invitational meet at the soccer complex in Lenoir -hopefully it is cooler this year!  Next Tuesday the team will travel to Ashe County HS for an away meet.