by Mr. Carter, Guest Reporter

November 16, 2022

The Galileo Cross Country teams attended the VHSL Class I State Championship meet this past Saturday, November 12th, at Green Hill Park in Salem, Virginia. While neither team was at their peak due to illness, the girls team still performed and finished as the runner-up for the State Championship with the boys finishing eighth after winning the state championship just the year before.

The Galileo girls were led by junior Carol-Anne Garrett who finished second overall out of ninety-seven runners in the girls championship race. Garrett was followed on the scorecard by senior captain Camila Rodriguez (11th), senior captain Rowan Kirk (29th), junior Ava Wray (31st), and junior Natalie Owen (37th). Other notable performances include sophomore Maya Herndon and junior Anna Tucker.

When asked about this being her last cross country race, Rodriguez said “I was really sad about not getting the championship ring we all desired, but we gave it our all, poured our hearts and lungs out, and I’m still very proud of what my team was able to accomplish today”. While some of the girls were disappointed by the second place finish, especially after a season of excellent performances, head coach Mark Bryant reminded the team that every other high school in the meet except for the champion George Wythe would have traded places with the Galileo team and their second place finish. The Lady Falcons have now finished in the top three for the last four state championship appearances including runner-up the past two times, an impressive feat and nothing to be disappointed by.

The Galileo boys came into the state championship race ranked third and looking to pull-off the upset of the year to defend their state championship win from the year before. However, those hopes did not come to fruition. The boys were missing their 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th ranked boys heading into the meet and were only able to put together a five-person team out of the seven that could run at the meet. Despite the adversity, the boys finished 8th overall led by a strong performance by senior captain Alex Gomez-Hernandez with a 6th overall finish in a field of ninety-eight runners. Senior captain Buford Jackson Herndon also medaled with a 13th place finish followed by senior Jalyn Jones (39th).

“It was a different atmosphere Saturday given the situation” explained Herndon, “It allowed for a little more light-heartedness; when you know you're in the competition for winning, you have more pressure on you, like the girls. But overall, it gave us a little more of a chance to enjoy the meet without the pressure we’re used to having and gave the rookies a chance to experience the moment and high-level competition.” Freshmen Thomas Hungerland and Nicholas Kania got the opportunity to step-up and compete at the state-level which will hopefully bring much needed experience to the table next year with the very young team.

Now with the cross country season officially closed, the teams look to transition their focus to the indoor track season and hopefully compete for wins (and championship rings) at the next state championship.