WNC teams head to Wendy’s Invitational
September 30, 2011 by David Pickett
Filed under News
PDF ASHEVILLE, NC — East Mecklenburg high school is set to host the 37th Annual Wendy’s Invitational Saturday morning at McAlpine Park in Charlotte. Competition is scheduled to get underway at 9:00 a.m. with the women’s open race, and concluded with the men’s individual junior and senior race at 12:45 p.m.
Eight schools from Western North Carolina are among the teams competing in this weekend’s invitational, including AC Reynolds, Asheville, East Henderson, Enka, North Buncombe, North Henderson, TC Roberson and West Henderson.
North Henderson's Cate Byrd (left) is scheduled to compete in this weekend's Wendy's Invitational. Photo Credit: Asheville Citizen-Times
The Roberson girls bring a strong contingent of athletes into McAlpine park led by junior Brooke Gordon. Gordon will be looking to improve on her season’s best of 18:14 from the adidas Challenge meet. Fellow teammates, Rachel Koon, Anatasia Soule and Elizabeth Mosher will also compete alongside Gordon in the five kilometers race. Koon currently holds the third-fastest time in WNC at 19:49.3. Soule and Mosher hold the fifth (19:53.6) and seventh fastest times (19:55.4) in WNC, respectively.
North Henderson senior Cate Byrd rounds out the list of girl competitors who are ranked in the top-10 in WNC. Byrd holds the ninth-fastest time this season at 19:57.
On the boys side, the Kovach brothers pace the pack for Roberson. Robert Kovach has run 16:24 this season and is ranked third in WNC, while younger brother Paul has run 16:28 this season and is ranked behind Robert at fourth. The Roberson boys are ranked fourth as a team in the latest coaches poll by NCRunners.com.