Riverwood's Alexa Hoppenfeld Among Saturday's Winners of Annual Wingfoot Classic
Another Atlanta Track Club Wingfoot Classic was completed on Saturday as high school cross country teams from around Georgia made their way up to Sam Smith Park in Cartersville for the day two of the annual two day event. With the large field of teams participating in the run, the day would feature two boys and girls division and the Boys A Division kicked off the event and would be one by Richmond Hill’s Memphis Rich, who would cross the line in a time of 16:06.20.
The first girls division would be taken by Riverwood’s Alexa Hoppenfeld, who finished in a time of 18:50.40, 17 seconds ahead of Landmark Christian’s Shari Brown (19:07.90). “It was great. There’s always so much fear of the unknown the beginning of the season, but somehow if you can come out here, race with some incredible people and just do what I love, and race really hard and that was accomplished today. I love this meet,” Hoppenfeld said after her win.
The second run of the boys division would go to Jacob Tarkington of Fideles (16:30.00) Christian School as he held on to inch out Westminster’s Adam Lippe (16:30.20). The two nearly stayed in stride with one another the entire race and as both pushed towards the finish line, it would be Tarkington coming out victorious. “It’s just no funnier place you can do it,” Tarkington said of his first place finish adding that “practice hard, race faster and glorify God the most,” were keys to his victory.
The final varsity race of the day would be the Girls B division which would see Campbell’s Lilla Kate Tucker set a new personal record of 19:41.20 as she cross the finish line for first. “I just tried to keep holding on to them and then I was like, ‘I’m pretty close to them, I just have to go for it’, I was sick of getting close to sub 20,” Tucker said of her strategy to take the lead of the pack and have a strong finish.
