Enloe’s Cross Country team is setting up for success in the 2019-2020 school year. Though the season officially began on August 1st, many of Enloe’s runners were conditioning long before at Umstead State Park. Athletes made sure that they were running frequently during the summer in order to be ready for the Fall season, and it looks like it’s already paying off.

Cross Country is a team sport in which a team’s top seven runners run a 5-kilometer trail competing for the best placement in the race against runners from other teams. When a runner crosses the finish line their placement is marked, and their team score is determined by the place of the top five runners. Tiebreakers are determined by the places of the sixth and seventh runners. Enloe’s Cap 7 is one of the most competitive conferences in the state, which include teams like Millbrook, Cardinal Gibbons, Leesville and Broughton, who are all some of the top teams in the state at the moment, all of which are projected to be top 10 teams by the end of the 2019-2020 season.

 In the meet at Wendell Park on August 24th, the team took 1st, with many of the runners finishing in the top 20. The team also performed well at the Knights Invitational on September 7th in Rocky Mount where they took second place, just by only 1 point to Heritage, who scored 43 points over Enloe’s 42. Their most recent meet was on September 20th at the Hare & Hound Invitational in Charlotte. 

The Hare & Hound was their most competitive meet so far. The race has been held annually for the last eight years and has some of the best runners that the state has to offer, it is a major meet and with many runners having their best performances at the race. In the Open Races, the Men’s team came in 3rd overall, and in the Women’s division, they took 13th, neither is an easy feat.

Senior Matthew Denoncourt says that the race was their best yet in terms of improving. “I’m really proud of our team after this weekend. Every single person set a new season-best 5k time or a new personal best 5k time.” When I asked him about the competition, he told me just how competitive the bracket is. “Enloe is in a really tough region when it comes to cross country. This year I think we’ve really got the potential to do well at regionals. Personally I’m hoping for the top 6 or 7 but if everyone puts in the work I think there’s a chance we can place top 4 and make it to states.” 

  Finally, Matthew said that his intuition told him that the race would turn out well. “Before the first race even went off, I had a pretty good feeling about how things were going to go. It was just one of those moments where it all came together. The temperature was cool, the course was a good one, and everyone kind of just seemed to have their heads in the game.” Matthew’s instinctive feelings proved correct, as Enloe took the top 20 spots in every race they ran in. As the conference and regional meets approach, it’s clear that Enloe XC has nowhere to go but up.

It’s going to be a great season for cross country! If you’d like more information on upcoming Enloe Cross Country events visit https://nc.milesplit.com/teams/7358-enloe/schedule and for statewide cross country news and stats visit https://nc.milesplit.com/