Cross country teams ready for practice start, Aug. 17

The 2009 Banks County cross country team has some large expectations for the coming season.

Coach Kelly McDuffie said the girls are hard at work to make a return to the state tournament; the boys finished 15th last year.

“I am really excited about this year,” said McDuffie. “The girls are working super hard and I expect to see them appear back in the state tournament. Except for one boy varsity runner, we will be returning all seven of the eight runners who traveled to state last year and finished 15th.”



One of the returning runners is senior Jorge Diaz who finished inside the top 25 runners in the state in the AA competition.

Setting the pace for the coming season, McDuffie said that a lot of the team spent the summer in camps and members maintained where they left off from last season.

“Eight boys and four girls attended a cross country camp this summer at Truett McConnell College,” said McDuffie. “We had our first Banks County cross country camp this summer. We spent a lot of time on fundamentals of running and nutrition.”

The hard work from the summer should pay off as the runners begin practices Aug. 17. The first meet will be at home on Sept. 8 at 4:30.

“We have two goals, go for the top and be a better person than when we started,” McDuffie said.

2009-Cross-Country-Schedule.pdf