A golden anniversary, indeed.
The sport of cross country was first introduced at Christ School in 1972 by hall of fame coach Reed Finlay ’58, or “Big R” as he was known to his runners.
Over the years, the program has had a modicum of success at the statewide level with a half-dozen individual champions. But from a team perspective, Christ School cross country is at its apex right now.
The back-to-back NCISAA 4-A state champions were the guests of honor Thursday at Boxwood House for a party to celebrate their 2022 season. It was hosted by the Jenkins family, who extended the same invitation to the team in 2021.
Last fall was the 50th season in existence for the Greenies and their best yet.
Christ School had the lowest average time in North Carolina for its top-five runners (15:36.09) at a state meet, amongst all private and public schools. The Greenies were undefeated against every NCISAA team.
Runners were in alphabetical order: John Barton ’25, Jacob Beatty ’25, Gavin Denton ’26, Eyob Gill ’24, Noah Graham ’23, Rocky Hansen ’23, Jack Higgins ’25, Noah Hunt ’24, Wiley Kessler ’25, Sebastian Knight ’23, Vovi Lagutin ’23, Cole Lewis ’25, Lansing Lewis ’26, Luke Parrish ’24, Will Peeler ’23, Dallas Reeves ’27, Dawson Reeves ’24, Kahzi Sealey ’23, Patrick Wang ’24, Nate Wilberding ’25, Mark Yee ’24, and Bill Zhou ’24.
Coaches were: Randy Ashley, Carolyn Lowe-Thompson P’24, P’26, and Mark Thompson P’24, P’26.
More photos from Thursday's party can be viewed at this link.