James Robinson VA Rallies Past Webb School of Knoxville For Girls Team Title; Christ School NC Edges Past Jesuit LA

By Oliver Hinson of DyeStat

John Nepolitan PHOTOS

Cary, N.C. — Averi Lowen proved Saturday that she deserves her US#1 ranking.

Lowen dominated Girls Race of Champions at the Great American XC Festival, winning by over 20 seconds against one of the most stacked fields to toe the line this season. 

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Her winning time of 16:27.2 is the third-fastest ever on the WakeMed Soccer Park course, behind only a pair of former Nike Cross Nationals champions: Irene Riggs’ 16:02.1 from 2022 and Katelyn Tuohy’s 16:22.8 from 2019.

“I would have never seen myself here,” Lowen said in disbelief after her race. “But I know that my hard work is paying off, and to see (that) means a lot.”

Lowen was racing for more than herself today. The Bowdon GA junior lost her mother, Leanne Lowen, to breast cancer last year, and this season she debuted a new uniform with a pink ribbon on the back in her honor.

“I know she would have loved to be here,” Lowen said. “She was definitely on my mind. I felt like she carried me up that last hill.”

Having that ribbon on her jersey encouraged her to “go out and win for her.” She wasn’t taking any chances in doing so; by the two-kilometer mark, she had already built a 15-second, and that gap only grew in the latter half of the race. She started to fade a bit on the course’s last hill, but it didn’t matter; no one was catching her.

Twins Calysta and Jazzlyn Garmer, seniors at Webb of Knoxville TN, finished side-by-side in second and third place. Calysta crossed the line in 16:50.0, and Jazzlyn was just a tenth of a second behind her. Both of them recorded personal bests, and they now sit 11th and 12th on the course’s all-time list.

This is hardly new for the Garmers. They finished 1-2 in each of their first three meets this season, and this is the third time they’ve finished within a second of each other.

“All season, we’ve been used to, pretty much the whole race, just working with each other,” Calysta Garmer said. “We’ve been doing that all season, and we’ve been finishing pretty strong. Whenever I came into the final hill and saw my twin by my side, we kept pushing it in together.”

With an exceptional 1-2 punch and fellow senior Carolina Areheart in 33rd place, No. 5 Webb of Knoxville looked to be well on their way to the team title, but their fourth and fifth runners lagged behind in 130th and 159th. They scored 202 points and second behind No. 18 James Robinson VA.

The Rams scored 176 points without putting a single runner in the top 20. Their 1-4 spread was just over 30 seconds, and their fifth runner — freshman Claire Andesen — held on for 117th place. 

Head coach Nick Reed was Andresen’s P.E. teacher in eighth grade, and he said he knew she was up for the task today.

“She’s always told me she was excited for track and cross country,” Reed said. “Knowing her as a student, I knew she was really motivated for it, and then when she came in, she just melded in with the girls and worked her way into that groove and really found that fifth spot. She’s figuring it out really quick, and she’s racing with maturity.”

William Penn Charter PA, led by freshman Mackenzie Skelly’s ninth-place finish, took third in the team standings with 245 points, followed by Cardinal Gibbons NC with 260 points.

On the individual side, Maysen Fletcher (Herbert Hoover WV) and Madeline Dorsch (Pinecrest NC) rounded out the top five, while Lily Alder (Timpview UT) took sixth.

Mantecon Defends ROC Title

Marcelo Mantecon is making a strong case as the man to beat in the Southeast this year.

The junior from Belen Jesuit Prep FL defended his individual title from last year’s Festival, winning with a time of 14:39.0. Unlike Lowen, Mantecon didn’t rush to build a lead; he stayed patient, breaking off from the pack in the last mile and pulling away to win by five seconds.

Despite nearly recording a personal best on a hot day, Mantecon said his performance wasn’t all-out; he rated it at a 6 out of 10 on the “pain scale.”

“I had an extra bullet in the chamber just in case someone did come and contend with me,” Mantecon said.

If that is true, Mantecon will be a dangerous man in the postseason. He’s torched all of his competition this fall, and he now has two marquee wins to his name in the last month — he won the Southern Showcase on Sep. 13 in a personal best time of 14:35.3.

Last year, Mantecon took fifth at the NXR Southeast Regional; all four of the men who beat him graduated in the spring. On a national scale, there are only two names ahead of him: Jackson Spencer (Herriman UT) and Sean Fries (Minnetonka MN), neither of whom raced this weekend. When rankings time comes around again, Mantecon will surely be in the conversation for a top spot.

Meanwhile, Ryan Sykes (Horace Greeley NY) took second on Saturday with a time of 14:44.2, a personal best by 20 seconds. 

Sykes put this race on his calendar for a few reasons: first, and most obvious, he wanted to race some of the best runners in the country. Second, he wanted a chance to practice traveling for races, something he doesn’t often do.

Sykes won the NXR New York regional last year, earning him a spot at Nike Cross Nationals, but he didn’t have his best day in Portland, finishing 114th. Getting used to the quirks of travel — sleeping in a new bed, eating unfamiliar foods and adjusting to a new time zone, for example — is going to be one of the keys to his success in the postseason, he said.

Aaron Brodrick (Oconee County GA) finished third in 14:50.6, followed by Mantecon’s teammate, Armando Cruz, in 14:58.0. Joshua Taylor (Clover Hill VA) rounded out the top five with a time of 14:58.3.

Christ School NC won the team title with 150 points, narrowly beating US#4 Jesuit LA. The Bluejays from New Orleans had a strong team outing, boasting a tight 36-second spread, but Christ School’s 1-2 punch — Brooks Barbee and Reynolds Young — finished 10th and 12th, respectively, while Jesuit’s Brady Monahan could only muster 20th. 

Coach Randy Ashley said he was “perplexed” by his team’s finish — not necessarily in a bad way. The order of his top seven looked substantially different than he thought it would going in, which, while a bit unnerving, showed him that his team has plenty of depth.

“It shows me a lot about the depth and their character,” Ashley said. “These guys really believe in each other. They want each other to succeed. Sure, some of them are disappointed when they don’t have a great race, but to see that we get number one… makes the group collectively happy.”

Going into this race, Christ School was ranked fourth in the Southeast region behind McCallie School TN, Belen Jesuit and IMG Academy FL. McCallie was not in the race, but Belen Jesuit and IMG finished fifth and 11th, respectively, both well behind Christ School.

Trinity Louisville KY finished third with 189 points, followed by Broughton NC with 190. Belen Jesuit rounded out the top five with 200.