How Savannah Arts' Wade won state cross country crown, leading team to first championship
Margaret Wade and Lyric Olson have been running cross country together since their middle school days when Wade was at STEM Academy at Bartlett and Olson was at Garrison School for the Arts and they were teammates on a combined district squad.
On Saturday the pair closed out their high school careers in the best way possible as they helped lead the Savannah Arts Academy girls team to its first team state title in Carrollton.
Wade won her first individual state cross country crown in the GHSA Class 2A race as she covered the hilly 3.1-mile course in 19 minutes, 27.12 seconds — nearly 20 seconds ahead of Landmark Christian's Shari Brown, who finished second. Olson was fifth in 20:41.20.
The Panthers' Ava Coffey (20:46.63) was sixth, Elle Harward-Grant (21:25.78) took 12th, Camille Arango (22:29.77) finished 17th, with Anna Beth Baker 44th in 24:04 and Rosie Knudsen 69th in 25:17.12.
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Last season, the Panthers had their best team finish as they took second competing in Class 3A, with Wade taking home a bronze medal.
"I'm pretty amped right now," Panthers coach Steve Ricciardi said in a phone interview afterward. "This is surreal because it's something we've been shooting for since this senior class started out as freshmen. Margaret has been incredibly consistent racing at such a high level — I've never seen anything like it. And she and Lyric have been best of friends running together since middle school. It's been cool to see them grow up together and push each other."
Wade, who won the 3,200 meters in the Class 3A state track last spring, while finishing second in the 1,600, said her decision to not run in college took some of the pressure off in cross country this fall. She won every race she entered except for the ASICS Invitational, an elite meet where she finished second with a personal-best 5K time of 17:37.12 — the best time posted by any female runner in Georgia this year.
"Winning the championship means everything to us," Wade said. "Being on this team has been one of the best parts of my life, and winning the championship has always been our goal. Lyric and I have been running together for seven years. So to win it our senior year is so special.
"Deciding to not run in college helped me to focus on our team, and try to run for myself, and I think that helped me do my best this season."
Olson said the win was important to the senior class and the girls wanted to win it for their coach, too.
"It was an awesome season," said Olson, who won the Class 3A state title in the 800 meters, and the Meet of Champions in the same event in the spring. "We could tell how much coach Ricciardi wanted this, and that made us want to win it.
"Running with Margaret for the last seven years has been amazing. She has been motivating and inspiring to me as a runner and as a person."
Richmond Hill's Rich a state champion
Richmond Hill's Memphis Rich won the GHSA Class 7A state title in Carrollton on Friday as the junior covered the 3.1-mile course in 16:21.93. His classmate Noah Sybert (17:34.46) was 24th.
It was the first state crown for Rich, who finished fifth in the Class 6A meet last year.
"I was in a state of shock after winning the race," Rich said in a phone interview Saturday. "I had some injuries earlier in the season, but I believed I could come back and I put myself in a position to win. When I crossed the finish line, everything from the last five months coursed through my head. It was an amazing feeling."
Richmond Hill coach Levi Sybert said it was a great race by Rich.
"He was confident in the first kilometer and then made his move," Sybert said. "He made adult decisions to win this race. It's been nice to see his maturation as a runner since he was a freshman until now."
— Benedictine sophomore John Dodson was ninth in the Class 4A race with a time of 17:01.27.
— John Ryan of Savannah Country Day finished third in the Class 3A meet as the senior ran a time of 17:09.04. J.T. Gard of Savannah Christian was 23rd in 18:15.73.
Dennis Knight covers sports for the Savannah Morning News. Contact him at Dknight@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @DennisKnightSMN
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Margaret Wade leads Savannah Arts to state cross country title
