Walton Stage Rages
Saturday, August 26th
Gainesville College - 2mi
Gainesville, GA
RESULTS: https://www.milesplit.com/meets/18724 (Courtesy of gatfxc.com)
Featured Teams:
SE #9 - Walton (GA)
SE Bubble - Parkview (GA)
SE Bubble - Lassiter (GA)
It was tough to differentiate who was the best team in Georgia coming into the season with 5A state champion Parkview and 5A state runner-up Walton. Walton got the early season nod with the NTN preseason #9 ranking with Parkview sitting on the bubble. Parkview's victory over Walton at the Walton Stage Races may call for a re-evaluation of who is the better of the two teams. Despite the opening victory, it is still a close call between the two Georgia squads as they raced in an unconvential cross country format of staggered two mile races. There were five stages with the first stage having all participating teams fifth runners racing and the last stage pitting the top runners of each team against one another. Neither team was racing at 100%.
Parkview sat out their top runner Michael Winston as precautionary move. "Winston tweaked his Achilles during the warm-up and we just didn't feel we needed to risk it," said Parkview coach James Tigue. However, Coach Tigue felt that his top runner will be ready for next week's Clara Bowl.
Marcelis Lynch stepped into the #1 runner spot for Parkview in lieu of Winston's absence and faired well with the team's top time of 10:19 on the two mile course finishing fifth in stage 5. However, Walton's top runner in Jay Heller was able to take advantage of facing Parkview's true #2 runner in finishing third in 10:03. Berkmar's (GA) Girma Mecdheso won stage 5 with the fastest time of the day as the only runner to break ten minutes in 9:47.
Walton was also missing its share of top returnees as their #2 and #3 runners did not race and Parkview was able to put a runner ahead of Walton's runner in stages two through four with Parkview junior Josh Pinson finishing second in stage four (#2 runners) in 10:34, junior Brett Richardson winning stage three (#3 runners) in 10:30, junior J.J. Van Tonder taking second in stage two (#4 runners) with a time of 10:49. Parkview coach Tigue was very content with the performances of his back pack of runners. "I have always felt that the number four and number five runners make all the difference in cross country and I think we are going to be in great shape this year after seeing Brett Richardson and JJ Van Tonder race the two miles."
Walton junior Jeremy Schmid was a big bright spot for Coach Tom Williams' squad as he finished second in stage five (#5-7 runners) in 10:42 and ahead of Parkview freshmen Nick Williams (3rd, 10:52) and sophomore Brian Detweiler (4th, 10:52). Insert junior Mark Viglotti (16:45 5K) and senior Justin Kerzie (16:54 5K) back into the lineup for Walton and they will be a solid team. Next race for Walton will be in Spartansburg, South Carolina at the Eye Opener on September 9th, but Great American on the 23rd of next month will be a meet of great importance for this squad as they will race at full strength there. "We are focusing on Great American and training for that race is going well," stated Coach Williams. Last year, Walton finished ninth in stage races, while eventually finishing second in the Georgia 5A state race.
Lassiter made a strong case for themselves as they ran competitively with Parkview will finishing ahead of Walton in second place in the team scoring. Lassiter actually is ranked second in the state of Georgia in the same position behind Parkview and ahead of Walton. At the stage races, the team ahd a top five finisher in all of the final four stages (runners #4-1). Last year's sixth place finishing team at the Georgia 5A State Meet looked vastly improved with junior David Fleckinger finishing fourth in stage five (10:17), junior Drew Jones winning stage four (10:31), senior Thomas Anderson finishing third in stage three (10:44), and Joe Fulton finishing fourth in state two (10:50).
1. Parkview 13 2. Lassiter 18 3. Collins Hill 29 4. North Hall 29 5. Walton 29 Parkview: Stage 1 3. Williams PV 10:52 4. Detweiler PV 10:52 Stage 2 2. Van Tonder PV 10:49 Stage 3 1. Richardson PV 10:30 Stage 4 2. Pinson PV 10:34 Stage 5 5. Lynch PV 10:19 Lassiter: Stage 2 4. Joe Fulton LA 10:50 Stage 3 3. Thomas Anderson LA 10:44 Stage 4 1. Drew Jones LA 10:31 Stage 5 4. Zach Fleckinger LA 10:17 Walton: Stage 1 2. Jeremy Schmid WA 10:42 Stage 5 3. Heller WA 10:03