By Nick Nunn
Staff Writer

Last Saturday the Morgan County High School cross country team competed in the 2012 UGA Bulldog Invite. MCHS athletes ran in three of the six races: the JV Boys Three-Mile Run, the Varsity Girls Three-Mile Run, and the Varsity Boys Three-Mile Run.
Three Morgan County runners, Dillon Riedlinger, Nathan Lundy and Bryce Kiepper ran in the JV Boys Three-Mile Run. This was a longer race than the junior varsity boys ran last week at the NEGA Championships, where they ran a 3K (1.86 mile) race. The boys had impressive times on the race. Riedlinger, the fastest junior varsity runner this week for Morgan County in the 3K finished the race in 20 minutes and 25 seconds.
The distance of the Three-Mile Run was one-tenth of a mile shorter than the 5K races that the varsity boy and girl teams ran the week before at the NEGA Championships. Head Coach Brandon York explained the differences between the race lengths.
 “Cross country courses are never 100 percent the same, and can be anywhere from three miles to 5K, but really I'm not overly concerned about how the variances affect time. We had two times that would have qualified as school records.”
The varsity girls also did well in their race, the Varsity Girls Three-Mile Run. Among the seven Morgan County girls to run in the race, Yakira Chapman and Kaitlin Malcom finished the race first with times of 25 minutes and 25 seconds and 26 minutes and 42 seconds.
Coach York said the girls’ team, “received a bit of a pleasant addition by track cross-over Megan Hume, who sat out the last meet due to being hampered all week with bronchitis.” Hume’s time in the race was 29 minutes and 12 seconds.
The eight varsity boys from Morgan County that competed in the Varsity Boys Three-Mile Run had good times for the race. Again, Zach Stone and Gladwin Kreimann came in at the top of the Morgan County pack with times of 17 minutes and 3 seconds and 17 minutes and 47 seconds. “Both of their times would have been school records,” stated Coach York.
Overall, the times for the team edged out Oconee, which, according to York, “is a big result, should it stand up in region.”
The next meet for Morgan County’s cross country team will be the Mountain Eagle Invitational in Clarkesville. next Saturday. The first race will begin at 10 a.m. The meet will be hosted by Habersham Central High School, but will take place on North Georgia Technical College’s Purcell Trail.

Printed in the September 6. 2012 edition.