 While the Varsity stayed home and did a Tempo run work-out at B'ville Park, the Reserve Varsity were taking care of business at the Rio Grande Invitational. It would be Freshman, Brandon Atkinson leading the Knights to a 3 point victory over Fairfield Union with his 9th place finish overall. A few seconds back, Jacob Dillinger and Austin Jarrell would finish 10th and 11th place. Hunter Adkins would come across in 20th place, while Freshman, Jacob Whitmore's 49th place sealed the deal and gave the Knights a surprising Team Championship.
Midland girls Reserve runners would finish a solid 5th in the girls Varsity race. It would be Shelby Nelson leading the way for the Lady Knights, while teammate Molly Darling was close behind. Rounding out Midland's top 5 were Ashley Stump, Taylor Adkins, and Casey Ellis. For full results go to www.runwv.com in the Cross Country section. Click on Regular Season Results to the left of the page to find the Rio Grande Invitational. Midland Varsity runners will be back in action next Saturday in Cary, NC for the Great American Cross Country Festival.  The latest ESPNRise rankings are out and you don't have to read far down the list before seeing Jacob Burcham's name. Burcham comes in at the number #4 position behind Senior Futsum Zeinasellassie of Indiana, Edward Cherserek from New Jersey, and Tony Smoragiewicz of South Dakota.
Burcham's next test will come at the Great American Festival in Cary, NC. Link to Elite XC Top 25 click on the following: http://rise.espn.go.com/track-and-xc/rankings/xc-top-25-boys-individuals/2011/Fall-2011.aspx?pursuit=TrackAndXC  The Knights will send their Reserve Varsity up the river this coming Saturday to compete in the Rio Grande Invitational. The Varsity will train through this weekend and travel the following weekend to Cary, NC for the Great American Cross Country Festival.
Races at Rio Grande begin at 1:20pm for the girls and 2:40pm for the boys. On September 17th, Midland makes their way to Louisville, Ky for the Trinity Invitational, which is the oldest Invitational in Kentucky. This marks the 56th year that Trinity has hosted the meet. Powerhouse, Carmel from Indiana will be on hand to defend their 2010 title.
A Charter Bus will transport the Knights down on Friday, so runners can view & work out on the course. This will be an overnight trip for the Knights who will be staying in a Hotel 2 miles from the course.  After a heat scorcher at the Geico Classic 2 weeks ago, the Trinity Invitational brought very pleasant weather for all the runners competing on Saturday. Midland's main goal was to improve upon their Geico Classic performance, which the Knights achieved by far.
Jacob Burcham took on all challengers and came away with the victory and a new PR with a time of 15:03. Following next for the Knights would be Tyler Salmons, who would be right at his PR with a time of 15:57. Avery Campbell, Brian Lawhon, & Jeremy Waugh would round out the top 5 with times of 16:36, 16:36, and 16:44. |
