Congratulations to all our Grady Cross Country team members, coaches and parents.  We had a great day in Carrollton.  The girls finished 13th overall and the boys 15th.  Times were fast and the weather was crisp.  The food was tasty and the bus ride was fun.  Full results are on-line at http://ga.milesplit.com/meets/73417.

Starting line at the GHSA 5AAA State Championship Meet in Carrollton

Please wash and return your uniforms and sweatsuits this week.  I must get everything inventoried and boxed as soon as possible.

You have now seen the awards ceremony.  Zane was our lone representative, but we cheered loudly.  Why not get the whole team up there on the platform next year?  The cross country season is long, it really lasts all year round.  A couple of you are planning to run the half marathon on Thanksgiving, others the half marathon in March.  One is running Footlocker after Thanksgiving.  What races will YOU run this fall/winter?  Will you stay in shape, keep training?  There are road races weekly and any running you do will help your other sports interests.  Swimming is beginning, soccer and track are right around the corner.  Summer workouts begin in June.

We will announce the end of year pot luck/awards supper soon.  We will try for the first Sunday evening in December.  If that is a bad date for many of you, let me know and we will see about another time.  Plan for 5:30-7:30 with awards, skits, pictures, and tomfoolery for everyone.

Congratulations!

Today, we finished in the top five in the toughest region in AAA.  That performance was good enough to qualify for next week's State Championship Meet.  Nice work!

The boys beat Druid Hills by only three points, thereby edging them out for the final qualifying spot.  It was a great example of how every runner counts.  Had only one or two of our top five runners finished just a spot or two back, we would not be running next week.

But we are!  Keep your eyes open for an e-mail about when we will be leaving Grady.  Our race is not until later in the morning, so it won't be quite the early pickup that it was today.  Because of that, I'm hoping that many of you will come and cheer on your teammates at the State Meet even if you're not running.

I am also very proud of those of you who ran the Open meet today.  We made a great showing, and many of you ran personal records.  We had more than we have run in the Open race in many years.  That portends great things.  We pointed to this meet all season, and you did not disappoint! 

Only our top seven runners can compete at the State Meet, and we'll stick with the lineup that we had today in the Varsity race.  If any of you who ran in the Varsity race today cannot run next weekend, you need to let me know TODAY!  Also, the top three runners in the Open race today should come to practice this week in order to serve as alternates for the State Meet.  As a matter of course, anyone else who wants to practice for one more week is welcome to join us, too.

Congratulations again on a great season!  I look forward to next week!

Congratulations, Grady Boys!  City of Atlanta Champions!

I was very proud of our performance today.  Several things stood out:
*We won the race and defended our city title against a focused and determined North Atlanta team.
*Zane performed well under pressure to defend his individual title.  
*We had several PRs for the Grant Park course.  Alex and Dominic were both determined to get under 19:00 on the course, and they each accomplished that goal by a long shot.
*We had the top junior (Zane), top sophomore (Dominic), and three of the four fastest freshmen (Sonny, Archie and Adrian).
*We won the team race based on a good performance from all seven runners.  Our top five all finished in the top eleven in the race, and the win was sealed when Sonny, Austin, Archie and Adrian all finished in front of North Atlanta's fifth runner.
*We had more boys there to support the runners than we had actually running the race.

All in all, we had fantastic leadership from our older runners and cool-under-fire performances from our freshmen.  Nice work.

We have accomplished our first major goal of the season: to win the City Championship.  Now, it's on to the next one: qualifying for the State Meet.  We have two-and-a-half weeks to prepare for the Region Meet on October 30th.  Let's make sure that we focus and run hard in the final run-up to the Region Meet.  Get lots of rest, eat well, come to practice, and start picturing yourself running fast at Region!

~George Darden

This Wednesday is the last regular season meet at Grant Park. Everyone should be ready to run that meet.  We will announce the 12 who will be placed on the state roster by Thursday.  Anyone not on that list may continue to train with us and run JV at region on Oct. 30th.  HOWEVER, the expectation is that you will be a regular at practice over the next three weeks.  If you don't come, you won't run. Everyone else should wash and return your uniform jersey and shorts to me in my classroom within the next week.

We will focus our attention on winning the APS meet, then preparing for region.  We will not be going to Carrollton for the Last Chance meet since we will have already run 10 meets.  Please plan to make one or two trips to Mercer on weekends to practice on the region course. We will announce the times each Thursday/Friday at practice.  Be there and pay attention!

This week is spirit week for homecoming.  Please remember that we are not football players, we are the cross country team and we have our own season to concentrate on.  This should be toughest two weeks of our training season.  We will be teaching our brains and legs to run FAST.  Saturday was nice, but it does not make us state contenders, YET!