Charlotte, N.C. – Another race is in the books for women's cross country who finished 22^nd at the Royals Cross Country Challenge. 
NGU finished with a total time of 1:41:26, an average finishing time of 20:17 per runner. 

Avery Shope was NGU's Best finisher for the Friday night race, finishing the race in 19:17. She finished in 76^th out of 269 runners. Juliana Gonzalez was next in line for the Crusaders, finishing in 99^th overall. Gonzalez clocked in at 19:32. The time for Shope is the second best time in program history and a new personal collegiate best. Gonzalez also had a personal best time and claimed the fifth best time in program history. 

Riley Nicholson and Rebekah Haddad were next for North Greenville in 173^rd and 182^nd. Nicholson clocked in with a time of 20:46 while Haddad finished with a time of 20:54. Zoie Justice was next with a time of 20:56. Haddad's time was  a new collegiate best for her. Paris Alsup also posted a career low time. 

From Coach Stober 
"Overall I thought we ran well today. I think most of our team is racing consistently right now. Consistent racing is a good thing. I would much rather have consistent racing than have most of our team running really well one race and then race very poorly the next race. Consistent racing is a sign that a breakout race is possible at any time. It's hard to predict when that will happen. But I think the course that we are racing on in a couple of weeks could be a good one for our athletes to run REALLY well. We've been very blessed with good conditions the past two races here in Charlotte. I hope that trend continues for us in two weeks in Alabama. With all of that being said, I don't want to over look the good performances that we had TODAY. 

On the men's side, Jacob Holcombe and Hayden Goode both ran a great race. They were in the mix with some of the top runners from our conference and region. I was really proud of how they ran today. I also thought Matthew, Ryland, and Jacob Klumb all had good races. Today was the best I've seen Ryland in a while, and Jacob Klumb ran a massive lifetime PB. I was proud of Ian for getting out there and running hard. He's had a long road full of lots of setbacks due to injuries. But he got back in the saddle today and showed a lot of grit. 

For the women, we had quite a few notable performances. As a true freshman, Avery Shope has now climbed her way to the #2 all-time 5K performance is program history. Another true freshman, Juliana Gonzalez has managed to run lifetime PB's in her last two races. Today's performance puts her at #5 all-time in program history. Rebekah and Paris both had good races and ended up running collegiate PB's. However, I think the performance of the day has to go to Hannah Chelton. Hannah is someone that we were really excited about coming in as a freshman last year. Unfortunately she had a hip injury early on during the cross country season last year and never got the opportunity to compete. In fact, she ended up having two different surgeries to repair some damage done to both of her hips. It's been a LONG road for her. She went months without being able to run. But she was dedicated to her rehab and she was finally cleared to start training over the summer. Hannah has progressed since her return to running and we are still taking things slow. But we felt like she was finally in a place to race if she wanted to. She decided to race, and she ended up running an awesome race for her first competition back. She deserves credit and recognition for all that she has gone through and overcome. She could have easily decided to give up competitive running, but she worked hard with her rehab and stayed focus on getting back to running. What an awesome moment it was for her today.

I'm proud of all of our athletes. They have worked so hard for so long and they continue to put in the work week after week. I'm excited to see what the remainder of the season holds."
 
Next Up 
North Greenville will run in the Division II Festival Year Showcase in Huntsville on October 22^nd.