Unofficially the season started in June 2012 when a
small contingent of guys went to Pisgah and Dupont in the mountains of eastern
Carolina. The core of runners ran less mileage than previous groups had, but it
was a decent three days of training. Daniel Beamer, a rising junior, was
actually the King of Black Mountain since he made it the furthest after 45
minutes of running.
Twenty six boys tried out for the team in August and
ran the 3 mile time trial on the track. Not that many made it all the way to November
though; in fact, there were only sixteen die-hards running at PAC-6. The girls
started with a few and ended with just that – a few. Captain Kreiling and Clark
maintained the new standards and set the tone for a memorable season.
The boys left Durham really early on the 25th
of August which was days before the official start of the school year to run at
McAlpine Park in Charlotte. The Providence Invite was won by Bakri of Cary who
would blast through the season and win the individual crown too. Broughton
dominated and never skipped a beat throughout the season. Nikolaus Kreiling ran
faster than Chris Barron, who had previously run the fastest 5000 meter race in
16:05. Nicky ran 15:56 for 9th place while his teammate and fellow
junior classman, Daniel Beamer, raced to 14th place with an
impressive 16:08. Romel Garcia followed suit and ran a personal best of 17:20.
Jack, formerly known as Oliver, Smith returned to form when he ran 18:15 and
helped the Falcons to a 13th place finish out of 44 teams.
A large contingent of freshmen ran their first high
school races and one even managed to run in the 18’s. Andrew Spencer hit the
line in 18:35 and kept going right into the top 10 on the team, then the top 7,
and then the scoring 5. The JV managed to place 10th out of 33 teams
which showed great promise.
Both teams travelled to South View High School to run
the Jungle Run and despite a late afternoon storm, the races went on as
scheduled. The JV boys were led by senior Patrick Connelly who ran under 18 for
the first time and won the race in 17:56. Slentz had a great race to and
improved upon his 19:02 PR from 2011 when he finished in 18:11 and second
overall. Greyson Meyer ended up 5th overall with a PR of 18:50.
Christian Long ’16 and Wesley Ellis ’16 were 14th and 21st
respectively. The team was second overall out of 18 teams.
The girls’ team got off to a rough start as they
finished 16th out of 18 teams. Clark led the way in 22:25 and 67th place while Geoffrion was 72nd.
The trio of Vanessa Canuto ‘13, Kalin Fraker ’15 and Taylor Grissom ’14 rounded
out the scoring for the Lady Falcons.
The boys had better luck but were not able to bring
home the hardware. Despite going 2-3 in the race, the team placed 5th
with 199 points. Garcia ran well again with a 17:32 while Smith set a new
personal record and ran 17:56. Kreiling and Beamer worked from the back of the
front pack to the front but couldn’t catch Hall, who ironically would beat
Kreiling by 2 seconds to capture the last All-State place. The 16:05 Nicky ran was
good enough for 2nd while Beamer ran another great time of 16:17 for
3rd. The team winner, Millbrook, would actually go on to qualify at
the Mideast Regional and finish well in the 4A State meet.
The first duel meet of the season for the girls was
against Orange High at home on the 5th of September. The ‘Friendly’
went well as the Falcons beat the 3A opponents from Hillsborough 28-31. Eryn
Clark ’14 finished second overall on a course that measure 4500 meters.
Freshman Rachel Geoffrion made her presence known when she finished 5th
in the 85 degree heat. Senior Vanessa Canuto, sophomore Kalin Fraker, and
sophomore Taylor Grissom rounded out the top 5 while juniors Meagan Saunders,
Kaleigh Roe and freshman Sam Armistead rounded out the scoring.
The boys got a perfect score 15-50 when Spencer,
Kreiling, Sean Long ’14, Mitchell Slentz ’14, Smith took the top 5 spots. In
fact, the team took the top 11 spots from the Orange squad which would later
qualify for the NCHSAA State Championships.
The Durham Academy Invitational was cancelled because
of excessive rains during the course of the week which left the campus course
saturated.
The PAC-6 conference meets started when Jordan hosted
Hillside and an undermanned East Chapel Hill squad; the East scoring didn’t
count towards conference records but the sweep of Hillside did. Kreiling and
Beamer wouldn’t allow a freshman from East to take first prize, so they outran
him the last mile and went 1-2 in 18:19 and 18:20 on the modified course which
measured just under 5000 meters. Spencer gave it a good run, but he finished 4th
overall. Meyer and Long did the rest of the scoring when they finished in 5th
and 6th respectively.
The girls scored 16 against Hillside’s 46 because
Clark’s 2nd, Canuto’s
4th, Geoffrion’s 6th , Fraker’s
9th and Grissom’s 13th.
East managed to handle us despite not running their top girls and had 25 to our
33 points.
ADIDAS at the Wake Medical Soccer Complex (formerly
known as SAS) offered all the opportunity a young runner would want to run a
great race and a couple of guys really took advantage of the ideal conditions
and fast race. One of the shockers of the day was when Justice Scott ’16 ran to
23rd place and ran 19:06.
Freshmen Austin Rooks ran closely behind and closed in 19:25 and 31st
place. Coleman Deans ’16 and Vincent
Enierga ’16 ran personal bests and helped the guys to finish 6th out
of 16 teams.
Five out of the nine guys in the Championship race
set personal bests which helped us get 20th out of 36 teams. Meyer
ran 18:13, Long 18:07, Spencer hit a landmark of 17:59, Connelly ran great with
a 17:36 and Kreiling rewrote the record books. Nicky finished in an impressive
6th place overall because he ran 15:33! The time put him in the top
100 All-Time for high school runners on the Championship course.
September 25, 2012 was a beautiful day to race and
the Falcons defeated Riverside, Hillside and Northern at home on the new
course. Kreiling and Beamer took care of business by beating Colton Lawson who
as a freshman (2011) qualified for the 4A meet as an individual. The boys ran a
respectable 18:06 while Garcia was just 10 seconds behind and in 5th
place. Despite his best efforts Spencer finished 6th and Smith in 7th.
Jordan’s 21 points against Northern was good enough and the perfect 15 against
Riverside and Hillside was definitely enough.
The girls did not get any of the top 3 spots but ran
really well as a team to beat Northern, Riverside and Hillside. Eryn Clark
managed 4th, Geoffrion 5th, Canuto 6th,
Saunders 7th and Fraker 8th. The 27 points was good
enough to beat Riverside’s 29; Jordan scored 26 against Northern’s 33; Jordan
15 outran Hillside’s 48.
Hagan Stone Park hasn’t been so kind to us, but the
2012 team represented very well. Coleman Deans broke 20 for the first time
while classmate Justice Scott placed 12th with a PR of 18:32. The only PR run by a guy
in Varsity was Mitchell Slentz who ran 18:03. Kreiling placed 3rd
overall in 16:19 which happens to be the fastest time ever run at Hagan Stone
by a Jordan harrier. Beamer was far behind in 6th and 16:28. Spencer
crossed the line in 18:09 while Garcia finished the historic 5k in 18:17. The
team managed 6th out of 23 teams.
The course was still a little sloppy from a week of
heavy rains, but the weather was nice for the runners. The girls’ team placed
15th out of 18 teams despite ‘riding the monster in the woods’ for
good luck. Clark set a new Personal Record when she ran 21:19 for 38th
place. Geoffrion followed suit with 21:42 and 45th place. Canuto,
Grissom and Roe rounded out the top 5 and scoring to total 344 points.
The City-County Championships were bumped back a week
because Durham Academy’s campus was still soaked from the rains. The weather
was beautiful the day of the meet and Nikolaus Kreiling took full advantage of
it by outrunning the field to win (16:30) and become only the 3rd
male from JHS to win the crown; Hall won it in 1998 and Bean in 1993. It was
the first time the Falcons had gone 1-2 though because Beamer finished 2nd
in 16:41. Despite not placing any other runners in the top 15, the Falcons
garnered 57 points and beat out NCSS&M by 2 points. Andrew Spencer ran a PR
of 17:54 for 16th and Patrick Connelly ran 17:55 for 17th.
Romel Garcia managed 18:10 and 21st place.
Greyson Meyer overcame some GI issues to win in
18:18. Mitchell Slentz was 3rd in 18:34 and Austin Rooks broke the
19 mark for 4th overall. His 18:51 may have been out of fear after
Coach Mulligan ripped him pretty good just before the race. Justice Scott continued
racing well and hit the ‘tape’ in 18:56 for 5th. If a score was
kept, the Falcons surely would have won.
The Gray Cup stayed at NCSS&M because they outran
the girls for 43 points while we had 51. The team did manage to get 3
All-City-County awards because Eryn Clark was 3rd overall in 21:28
while her mentee was just 4 seconds behind running another PR. Canuto looked
like the Vanessa-of-old when she raced to 9th and earned honors for
the 3rd year. Fraker finished 18th in 23:20 and Grissom
in 23:30. Freshman Colleen Scott started and finished her first race in 25:31
while Risper Ochieng ran 25:48 during her first one. The boys and girls
combined to score 118 points which wasn’t enough to bring home the Cullen Cup;
NCSS&M scored 112.
Jordan hosted the PAC-6 Championships on the 16th
of October under ideal conditions. The East Chapel Hill girls dominated and
eventual State Championship runner-up, Pegah, won the race by a large margin.
Clark ran first for the Falcons yet again and ran 21:52 while Geoffrion missed
All-Conference honors when she finished in 11th (22:24). Canuto was
12th, Fraker 13th and Grissom 18th to get 61
points (2nd).
The JV boys’ runners represented well and if scores
were kept, they would have been a close second to East Chapel Hill. This was
despite a 2nd place finish by Grey Meyer in 18:27 and 3rd
place finish by Mitchell Slentz a second behind. Wesley Ellis ran for 7th
and an impressive 19:27. His classmate, Rooks, was a second behind.
The Varsity boys didn’t run fast enough and were
outmatched even though Nikolaus Kreiling won the race in spectacular fashion.
His 16:19 was better than East’s top 2 runners who he outkicked with 200 meters
to go. Beamer bounced back with 4th place overall and 16:54
clocking. Patrick Connelly took 9th and a coveted All-Conference
medal because he ran 17:59. Garcia missed the medal stand by one and ran 18:10
while his freshman teammate, Spencer, ran 13th and 18:15 overall. A
1-5 gap of 1:56 resulted in 38 points to East’s 30.
The Mideast Regional at Wake Medical Soccer Complex
(SAS) was run under breezy and mild conditions. The girls were 14th
out of 17 teams with 374 points and led by the freshman. Rachel ran her best on
the last day to finish 40th. Her 20:51 was over half a minute faster
than her best. Canuto raced to 74th overall with a 21:41 in her
final race as a Falcon. Fraker almost broke the 22 barrier with a 22:07 for 82nd.
Clark limped her way to a 22:21 while Grissom finished 100th overall
in 23:07.
Despite a fantastic 1-5 average, the boys only
managed 9th place with 256 points. Garcia was 92nd
(18:08), Connelly was 77th (17:49) and Spencer was 72nd
with an impressive 17:40 which eclipsed his best. Despite looking back numerous
times the final 100 meters, Daniel Beamer ran a personal best 16:03 and
finished in 9th place. His performance was the second best by an
individual from a team that did not qualify for the championships. Kreiling was
the other individual and he ran 15:55 for 6th place. These
All-Regional performances allowed them spots on the Mideast team of individuals
at the 4A championships at Beeson Park.
Nikolaus Kreiling got out to a good start and was in
the front pack at a half mile (with the exception of Bakri Abushouk from Cary
who was in front by himself). Beamer was at the back of the big back but in
good position. At the mile, Kreiling had fallen back a little but was still in
good position (4:55). Beamer had fallen back some, but he too was still in the
top 25. The middle went poorly as Kreiling fell off the pace and dropped out of
the top group; Beamer fell off the pace significantly. Although Kreiling
finished the last mile strong and passed numerous runners, he came up a bit
short and finished 11th overall – one spot off All-State. His 16:02
was only seconds off while Beamer ran 16:45 and finished 66th
overall.
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