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The Davie cross country team made its annual trip to Hagan Stone Park in Guilford County on Oct. 7 for the Hagan Stone Classic. Originally scheduled for Oct. 1, the meet was postponed due to Hurricane Ian. The postponement caused the field to be pared down from the usual 45 teams to 23. And because the meet took place on a Friday afternoon, the Davie team made an unusual decision to run all 27 of its competing athletes in the coed JV race.

“The championship race was scheduled for 3:30, but due to academic commitments we were among a few teams that could not arrive in time for the varsity race,” said coach Rob Raisbeck.  “After consultation with the meet director, we were among a handful of teams that just ran the JV race. Our goal in all of these preseason invitationals is to just get in the work and help us prepare for the championship meets later in October. I think we accomplished that.”

The championship race featured two of the top eight boys teams in the state as Christ School edged Cary Academy for the title.  Forsyth Country Day finished third. “If you slide our times into that race, we would have been fourth in the team standings, which would have been a good result for us,” said Raisbeck. “Of our 27 athletes, we had 16 of them run new personal record (PR) times, which tells us we are on schedule to run well at the conference meet next week.”

Sophomore Tyler Hill became the second Davie runner this season to break the 17:00 barrier as his time of 16:59 was a new PR by 13 seconds.

“There was a timing issue and we clocked all of our runners several seconds faster than the official time, so I think Tyler was probably 16:55,” said Raisbeck.

Thomas Essic crossed the line in 17:12 for a four-second PR. Owen Sulecki (17:38) and Ethan Lakey (17:50) were the next Davie finishers as the War Eagles claimed the top four places in the race and six of the top seven. Logan Zuleger continued his rapid improvement as he finished in 18:55 for a 22-second PR. Will  Allard’s time of 18:56 was a huge improvement of 49 seconds off of his previous best effort.

“Jeff (Jones) and I were really happy for Will,” said Raisbeck. “He has been training really hard and had just been on this plateau for the last year, but he really popped one today.”

Jackson Sulecki’s 28-second PR of 19:37 marked his first time under 20:00. Brayden Kistner (20:05) and Aric Boles (20:13) were the next Davie finishers. Chris Devicente had a 38-second PR to finish in 20:30 and edged out his sophomore classmate, Hayden Key, whose time of 20:40 was a 14-second PR. They were followed by Caswell Moore (21:16), Slade Keaton (20-second PR of 21:16), Wade Bomar (22:12), Jake Hannah (52-second PR of 22:37), Adam Brown (22:43), Jackson Shook (22:53) and Jacob Patton (17-second PR of 26:26).

Lexi Marion and Gracie Spicer were the top two finishers in the girls race with times of 21:28 and 21:32, respectively. Spicer’s time was an 18-second PR.

“Lexi and Gracie have been training really well this fall and keep getting better,” said Raisbeck. “We are excited to see how fast they will go at the conference meet.”

Riley McNeil was the third Davie finisher in 25:45. The next five Davie girls all had personal-best efforts. Emilia Marks’ time of 26:21 was a new PR by 1:50. Stella Frye crossed the line in 27:14, which was a 1:23 PR. Clara Phelps’ time of 27:15 was a new personal record by 56 seconds. Brianna Givens’ time of 29:13 shattered her previous best by 1:50, and Jordan Kistner knocked 1:51 off of her previous best time as she finished in 30:33. Reily York was just off of her personal best with a time of 33:21.

Next up for the War Eagles is the CPC Championships at Ivey Redmond Park in Kernersville on Oct. 19.

“The CPC is loaded once again,” said Raisbeck. “We are a very young team but we won’t back down from anybody. I think the team is looking forward to the challenges ahead, and I am confident we will be ready to run fast.”