NTN Southeast Regional
Girls Qualifiers: Collins Hill (GA) & Tatnall (DE)
Boys Qualifiers: Oak Ridge (TN) & Thomas Jefferson (VA)
NTN Southeast Regional Photo Album
8. 174 Derby City AC (20:18.2 101:30.7)
===============================================
1 20 Adrienne Curtis 19:45.1
2 23 Allison Riedling 19:49.3
3 36 Sara Davis 20:15.4
4 46 Ellen Daly 20:44.2
5 49 Hillary Raidt 20:56.7
6 ( 50) Amanda Day 20:58.2
7 ( 60) Amanda Perkins 21:48.0
Few expected the outcome of the girls race Saturday at the NTN Southeast Regional to come out the way it did. U.S. #3 Mountain Brook (AL) entered the meet as a huge pre-race favorite. The squad went out to the Bob Firman Invitational and beat many of the top teams in the Northwest, then came back and smoked the competition at the Great American XC Festival. Those two wins led many to believe that Mountain Brook could be at least top five at NTN, if not much higher.
As the race played out, Mountain Brook showed a very strong top two in race winner Madeline Morgan and seventh place Marie Demedicis. Their minute split from 2-5 created too much of a gap however, where other teams snuck in and scored lower points. Mountain Brook finished a strong third with 88 points, but missed out on an automatic NTN berth by nine points.
The winner of the girls race came from Suwanee XC Club. Suwanee, aka Collins Hill H.S. (GA), ran a near perfect race for them. The squad placed three in the top ten and their fourth right at fifteenth place. Their total of 68 points beat runner-up Tatnall (DE) by eleven points. Tatnall polished off their NTN berth with a strong 17 second split from 2-5. While the team only had one runner in the top ten, like many races, the pack often times wins the race.
Individually, Madeline Morgan won the race in 18:26, nine seconds ahead of Suwanee's Amanda Winslow. Placing third was Juliet Bottorff of Tatnall. The front runner finished with a time of 18:40. The top three definitely distinguished themselves from the rest of the field, placing a gap between third and fourth of over twenty seconds.
The boys race was equally as exciting, but in a different way. While the girls race didn't produce two clear cut teams, with Mountain Brook finishing so close to second place Tatnall, Oak Ridge (TN) and Thomas Jefferson (VA) both knew by the finish of the race that they wrapped up their trips to Portland. It was just all a matter of who won.
Both Oak Ridge and Thomas Jefferson ran strong pack races. Through three runners the two teams were tied with 26 points a piece. The team from Tennessee pulled out the win with a strong 4-5 back end combination to beat TJ 90-98. Maclean O'Donnell led the way for Oak Ridge winning the race in 15:54, 17 seconds up on second place finisher Patrick McGregor (Birmingham XC, AL). Brian Landry placed third to lead Thomas Jefferson.
Chattanooga XC (Baylor H.S., TN) finished in a dogfight with Oakton (VA) for third. Chattanooga used a powerful tandem up front to beat the quick finishing Oakton squad. Waldo du Plessis and Bill Matthews finished fourth and fifth respectively for the squad. Oakton's top two came in at ninth at tenth. The two squads finished one point apart as Chattanooga won 125-126.