THE FLATS – Georgia Tech cross country opened their season with a bang, sweeping both the men’s and women’s races on Friday morning at the Kennesaw State Opener at Noonday Creek Park.
“It was a really good start to the season for both teams. Obviously, it’s always exciting to get the wins. But there is always a little first race of the season jitters. So to see the energy the team brought and the smiles afterward, that was fun. We’ll dissect the results later but the men’s depth was impressive. The women were very strong up front. Overall a lot of positive takeaways and momentum going forward,” Coach Alan Drosky said.
The men’s team started first and dominated the proceedings. Every podium finisher was a Tech runner and 10 of the top 13 runners were Yellow Jackets. Senior James Cragin finished first (18:22.38), sophomore John Higinbotham finished second (18:27.14), and junior Zach Jaeger finished third (18:34.42) out of all runners in the 6k race. Senior Henrik Anderson (18:37.75) and senior Joshua Williams (18:43.81) round out the White and Gold’s scorers.
“We’ve got a great pack of boys who are consistent,” Higinbotham said. “Training has been going great so I think if we can keep that strong pack and run together, which is so important, we can keep that going on to other races.”
The women’s team had an impressive result with senior Nicole Fegans finished well ahead of the pack at 13:51.19. Second place was over six seconds behind her. Georgia Tech had the next three finishers in senior Liz Galarza (14:17.73), freshman Sarah Copeland (14:19.16), and senior Claire Moritz (14.19.40). Sophomore Katy Earwood was the final scorer for The White and Gold coming in at 15:01.54.
“It was a brilliant experience,” Copeland said of her first race for Georgia Tech. “I love the atmosphere. I love the people. I love the teams. The course was nice and flat, fast no doubt. I learned a lot. Learning to kick at the end will be good to work on but luckily Liz [Galarza] does it so well so I have good people to learn from.”
The White and Gold hit the road for their next meet in St. Paul, Minn. at the Roy Griak Invitational on Friday, Sept. 24 at 11 a.m.
