CARY - Another epic weekend race, another head-turning milestone win.
Many who follow the sport consider the Great American Cross Country Festival’s Race of Champions to be the Southeast’s premier meet. Christ School won it Saturday for the first time in school history with 150 points, edging second-place Jesuit (156 points) out of New Orleans.
The Greenies had a lot of familiarity with the WakeMed Soccer Park’s course, as it has been the host site for the last two NCISAA state meets. That knowledge, their training, and showing up ready to perform over Fall Break were enough against a stacked field of 39 other teams.
Individually, the top runners for Christ School were Brooks Barbee ’27 (10th place, 15:12.20), Reynolds Young ’27 (12th, 15:16.30), and Jack Dennehy ’27 (30th, 15:29.80) with a trio of personal-record times, along with Dallas Reeves ’27 (81st, 15:59.80), Brody Webb ’27 (96th, 16:04.80), Ben Graham ’27 (113th, 16:12.80), and Noah Clancy ’26 (147th, 16:23.60).
The Greenies are just under three weeks out from the NCISAA 4-A state meet and look like the prohibitive favorite. They are No. 8 in the most recent COROS/MileSplit national rankings and ranked 10th by DyeStat. In both cases, it is the highest position a Christ School team has ever attained in the rankings.
Coming into Saturday’s meet, Jesuit was ranked No. 4 in the country by COROS/MileSplit and DyeStat.