Tigerville - The Women's and Men's cross country teams traveled to McAlpine Creek Park's famous cross country course to compete in the Royals Challenge hosted by Queens University of Charlotte. Every year this meet has a deep field full of some of the fastest schools in the Southeast across Divisions I, II, III, and the NAIA. The Trailblazers didn't let the depth scare them off and stepped right up to face the competition in both the Blue and Gold races. 
 
The top finisher for the women was Cecily Anderton, who finished the Gold Race with a life-time personal best of 18:10 for the 5k distance. She also obliterated the previous school record time by 55 seconds. Right behind her was Ellie Timmons with a time of 18:12, which is a personal best for her. The next finisher was Avery Shope who also dipped under the previous school record time with a college cross country personal best time of 18:58. Crossing the line next was Riley Shope, who finished with a time of 19:30. To round out the women's top five finishers for the day was Julia VanDine, who ran a lifetime personal best in the Women's Blue Race with a time of 19:45. In total, the women's team also broke the school record 5k team average by 46 seconds with their average of 18:56.
            
For the men, Thomas Schilling was the first finisher to cross the line in the Men's Gold Race with a lifetime personal best in the 8k distance with a time of 25:37, putting him fifth on the Trailblazer All-Time List for that distance. Next to cross the line was freshman Brennan Harp, who finished with a time of 26:04, putting him at seventh on the All-Time List and giving him the fastest freshman 8k time in school history. Capping off the end of his last collegiate regular season with a bang was Matthew Heath who finished with a lifetime personal best of 26:08, which placed him ninth on the All-Time List. Cohen McDonald finished next with a huge personal best of 26:35. Rounding out the men's top five finishers for today was Mason White, who finished at the front of the pack in the Men's Blue Race with a time of 26:58. Additionally, the men's team was one second off the current school record for the 8k team average. 
 
From Coach Stober:
 
"Today was a special day. Days like today don't come very often, but they are so special and memorable when they do. We had so many good performances both from an individual and team standpoint.
 
"Both of our teams were split into different races, blue and gold. Half of our women and half of our men ran in the blue race and the other half ran in the gold race. It was different than what we are accustomed to, but it was a neat opportunity that provided more athletes the opportunity to contribute to a team score. 
 
"The women's blue race was first. Julia Van Dine got our day started off with a bang, running a lifetime PB and finishing top 15 overall. Julia has battled a lot of adversity over the past few months, even this week. For her to run the way she did was incredible. I'm so proud of her perseverance. It was great to see her have a good race that she was pleased with. Christiana Gidney finished second for us, running a cross country PB. Michaela Lanier was not far behind Christiana and also ran a cross country PB. Emma Bright had her best race of the season. Though it wasn't a PB, she took a step in the right direction today. Zoie Justice and Kaylee Copeland both had good races today as well. They've both battled through some injuries this season, but have persevered. Brelyn Birch ran a lifetime PB today. She's made a lot of progress this season, cutting nearly five minutes off her high school 5K PB. 
 
"Next was the men's blue race. Mason White went for it from the gun and turned in a solid performance as our top runner for the blue race. Caleb McDowell ran a PB finishing as our second guy. Caleb has had a tough freshman season dealing with a nagging injury. But I'm extremely proud of how he ran today despite the minimal amount of running that he's been able to do this season. He's got a bright future. We've just got to get him healthy. Thaddaeus Bertoni had one of the performances of the day. He moved up the entire race and had his signature finish, ultimately securing a PB. Chas Brewer also finished with a PB today. He put his nose in there from the start and looked strong the entire race. Dominique Cox also ran a PB today and finished as our fifth guy for the blue race. 
 
"The women's gold race was next. There was a lot of talent in this race and because of that the pace was hot from the start. Our top two girls went with the fast pace and it paid off BIG TIME. Cecily Anderton ended up crushing the old school record by almost a minute, running a lifetime best of 18:10. Ellie Timmons was right behind her at 18:12, also a lifetime best. Avery Shope finished as our third girl with a collegiate PB of 18:58, also under her previous school record. Riley Shope finished as our fourth girl with a respectable time of 19:30. Paris Alsup had a huge performance, finishing as our fifth girl running 19:47. Riley Nicholson had a tough day with some sickness during the race, but she showed a lot of toughness and resilience just to finish the race, let alone running under 20 minutes. Both Rebekah Haddad and Addison Martin were so close to their PBs. They both ran well for us today.
 
"The men's gold race was the finale. Thomas Schilling led the way and ended up with a new PB and the fifth fastest 8K in program history. Brennan Harp was our number two setting a new PB and tying the seventh fastest 8K time in program history. It was a special day for one of our seniors, Matthew Heath. He knew that this was his best opportunity to run a PB during his final cross country season, and he did just that. Not only did he run a PB, he ran the eighth fastest time in program history. Cohen MacDonald also ran a big PB finishing as our fourth guy. Jaxon Beebe rounded out our top five with a solid sub 27 minute performance. He's made a lot of improvement this season. Our sixth and seventh guys, Ben Jaminet and Nick Lavelle, also posted big PBs. 
 
"Overall we had 17 personal bests, one individual school record, and six top 10 all-time performances. Not to mention a school record for the fastest women's 5K team average with an average time of 18:56, almost a full minute faster than the previous school record. Notably, our men came within one second of tying the school record for fastest 8K team average. 
 
"I can't put into words how proud I am of this team. They have trained really hard for a long time, and they saw the results of their hard work today. It truly was a special day, one that we will all remember. Today was a huge confidence booster going into our post season competition. If we can stay healthy over the next two weeks, I'm really excited to see what both teams can do at Conference." 
 
Next, both the Trailblazer cross country squads will put it all on the line to show what they are made of at the Conference Carolinas Cross Country Championships on October 26^th at Milliken Arboretum in Spartanburg, South Carolina."