Last Saturday, the Green Level Varsity Women’s Cross Country Team placed 6th out of nine teams in the Patriot Derby Cross Country race while the Men’s team placed 7th out of eleven. Advaith Cheruvu, a runner on the Varsity Men’s team, agreed to tell us what happened last weekend.

Cheruvu, who got second place on our team and 38th overall in the race, said that the team left Green Level High School on a bus at 4 p.m. on Friday so they could reach the course in Hokes County, North Carolina and still have time to do a practice run of the course that day. Cheruvu also said that the course had many hills and a lot of grass, but wearing racing spikes (similar to cleats) helped overcome this making the course relatively easy.

Arya Bharti, another runner on the team, couldn’t run last Saturday due to an injury, but went to cheer on Green Level and take some photos and videos of the race. He thought that even though the guys placed 7th, they still did amazingly. Our fastest runner, freshman Alex Fernandez, placed 20th overall out of 102 racers with a 5k time of 18 minutes and 24 seconds. This means he ran a 5 minute and 55 second mile for 3.1 miles straight! According to Bharti, Fernandez even beat many seniors, juniors, and sophomores in his race. On the Varsity Women’s team, Campbell Dille was the fastest Green Level runner with a time of 22 minutes and 52 seconds. 

According to NC Runners Milesplit, a website where most Cross Country and Track race results for North Carolina teams are posted, there were six races, four of which our Cross Country team participated in. The Varsity Men, Varsity Women, the JV Men, and the JV Women all raced.

Placing better than older, more experienced competitors just goes to show what amazing athletes we have representing us here at Green Level High School.