The Corry XC teams kicked off the season Saturday at the Hornet Harrier Invitational hosted by Hickory.  The high school girls team narrowly missed winning the race for a second straight year as they lost by four points to Hickory and finished 2nd out of 13 teams.  Jordan Fox (7th, 21:08) and Haeleigh Bayle (9th, 21:22) led the way for the Beavers. Freshman Shay Linden had a phenomenal start to her high school career with a 14th place finish in 22:29. Shay has proven she’s willing to be aggressive and fight hard the entire race. These traits are rare for runners in general but especially for freshman who are making the jump in distance to 5k. Seniors Teya Bailey (22nd, 22:52) and Gwen Adams (28th, 23:39) rounded out the scoring for the team. Teryn Bailey finished 29th in 23:39 and Addie Pillar had a huge personal best time of 25:06 which placed her 42nd. The high school boys team finished 4th out of 13 teams. Fabian Fourspring (10th, 17:26), Tavon Kornikoski (14th, 17:48), and Tony Kerr (19th, 18:16) ran well and did a great job leadership wise as the boys team was missing a few of its top runners with one quitting on Friday and one not making it to the meet.  I’m really proud of the boys focusing and starting the year off so well considering the drama they have been dealing with.  Brandon Jackson (38th, 19:34) and Roo Hellyer (42nd, 19:40) stepped up big for the Beavers to round out the team score. Freshman Ethan Behm was one of the highlight performers on the day with a 43rd place finish in 19:40. Ethan has improved so much from his middle school years and stepped up big time today! Will Boucher finished 60th in 20:54.  In the JV race, Farrah Fourspring took 4th place in 26:37 and  Noah West absolutely smashed his personal best time ever finishing 7th in 22:23 which was a four minute improvement compared to his time at Hickory last year. Bryce Chelton was our only competitor in the boys middle school race and he finished in 44th with a time of 12:33. Bryce ran approximately two minutes faster than last year and showed how running those miles in the summer can really help.  The girls middle school team finished 3rd out of 14 teams and were led by the trio of Chloe Jaworski (4th, 11:18), Laikynn Bayle (7th, 11:48) and Finley Fourspring (12th, 12:02). Chloe has had a few really impressive practices and it was awesome to watch her perform so incredibly well in her first middle school meet. Zoe Higby (33rd, 13:47) and Cora Bowen (42nd, 15:15) also ran strong. The Corry teams next host North East on Tuesday at 4:00 pm.