Cross country programs dealing with unexpected losses entering the season

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The fall 2022 Cross Country season is officially upon us and many teams in the area are ready to make some noise this coming year. Coaches Tanelle Smith and Donnell Mitchell of Seaforth, Coach Karen Hawkins of Woods Charter, and Coach Cameron Isenhour of Northwood are all expecting big things this season and hope to improve on their 2021 campaigns.

Arguably the top program in the county entering the season is Woods Charter, who saw its boys and girls teams finish first and second, respectively, at the 1A Mideast Regional in 2021.

Head coach Karen Hawkins has plenty of talent to work with, as senior Colin Thompson on the boys side and junior Ellie Poitras, senior Maddie Sparrow and sophomore Anna Peeler on the girls side after strong 2021 seasons.

The Wolves will be without their top runner last season in senior Wiley Sikes, who will not run this season to focus on swimming. Sikes finished second at the 1A Mideast Regional race in a time of 17:07.58.

The Northwood Chargers boys team has an exciting top seven that Isenhour definitely seems confident in, and she has some undoubtedly big goals for the team this year. Isenhour said the team is working towards winning the Central 3A Carolina Conference, the NCHSAA 3A Mideast region title and the NCHSAA 3A State Championship ­— which will be held November 5th.

The Chargers return four of their top seven from last season and their top three returners placed 33rd, 40th and 63rd, respectively at the state Championship last year while the team placed 5th overall in the race. The Chargers are led by senior Christian Glick, who is their top returner and has a 5k personal best of 16:57 heading into the season.

Isenhour is very optimistic in his younger core as well, stating “we have two underclassmen that really stepped-up during track season and can really take that four and five spot on the team.”

The Chargers girls team is very much relying on its younger group of athletes, as they have no seniors on the team this season. Northwood’s top returner from last year looks to be junior Rokia Sissoko, who has a 5k personal best of 23:36. The goals for the Chargers this season are to place first or second in the conference and make it to the state championship meet.

The Hawks of Seaforth are also set to have big improvements over the previous season, with this being only the second year for the program. Even though the Hawks haven’t been around nearly as long as many of the other teams around the county, they are no stranger to success in this sport.

Last season, the Hawks managed to win the 1A/2A Mid-Carolina Conference in both the boys and girls competitions. Mitchell and Smith both have high expectations for their teams and hope they both can improve on last year’s eighth-place finish at the NCHSAA 2A state championship meet.

On paper, Seaforth is anticipating many returning athletes, as last year’s roster consisted entirely of freshman and sophomore runners.  Back for the Hawks are  sophomore Jack Anstrom -- who finishised second at the 2A state championship meet in 2021 -- and sophomore Will Cuichhi,  who finished 13th at the 2A Mideast Regionals. Sophomore Claire Morgan will head into the season as Seaforth’s top returning girls runner with a 5k personal best of 22:54.

To achieve the goals they have set out to reach, both Northwood and Seaforth have already been preparing for the 2022 season in multiple ways. The Northwood team has been training since Memorial Day and have put in a lot of focus on general body strength and core exercises along with the running.

Isenhour said that a couple members of the Seaforth team attended the Appalachian State cross country camp during the last week of July to help build team camraderie and to start working toward their goals for the year. Mitchell also said that his team had a significant number of athletes participate in optional practice.

Despite each of the teams in the county having big postseason ambitions, there are multiple races early on this season that coaches hope will help build towards the eventual conference and state meets. Both Isenhour and Mitchell are excited about racing at the Friday Night Lights invitational on Sept. 9 and at the Great American XC festival on Oct. 7 to see where their teams stand against some of the best teams around the state and region. Both of these races are premier meets that attract hundreds of athletes on both the boys and girls side.

Cross country, Chatham County, sports, XC, high school cross country, Seaforth, Woods Charter, Northwood, 1A, NCHSAA, Mid-Carolina, 2A