Clara Bowl opens high school, college seasons

This morning 40 schools and close to 1,100 cross country runners will descend on Berry College’s campus to compete in the annual Clara Bowl Invitational.

The yearly meet tends to serve as the start of the local high school cross country season and several area teams will participate. There will also be collegiate races where the Vikings will take on teams from four other schools.

The day gets going at 8 a.m. for the men’s college 8K race. The women’s college 6K race follows at 8:45.

The high schools get going at 9:30 with the girls 5K race, followed by the boys 5K race at 10:10.

With so many schools and runners competing, Berry cross country coach Paul Deaton says he and his staff are gearing up for the races.

“It’s a demanding event, and it takes a lot of time to get ready for it, but it’s really exciting on race day,” he says. “Traditionally, it has been one of the first meets of the year, but there have been a few more big early season meets this year.”

Several high school teams who fared well at state last season are bringing squads to the meet.

St. Pius X leads the way as its boys’ team is the defending Class 4A State Champions. Darlington’s boys and girls are set to compete as well. The Tigers finished second in the Class A Private School Meet at state last year, while the Lady Tigers finished third.

Harrison’s boys finished third in Class 6A last year, while Lovett will have it’s boys and girls teams, which both finished in the top four of Class AA last season.

Along with Darlington, several other local teams are scheduled to compete, including Cartersville, Model, Rockmart, Rome and Sonoraville.

The meet boasts a spectator-friendly course with fans getting to see several key points of the race.

“The course seems to have a reputation for being moderate. It’s not flat and fast, but it’s also not hilly and slow,” Deaton says. “It’s basically rolling grass fields. It’s also spectator friendly with the start and finish and all the mile marks within close proximity.”

The collegiate races feature a couple of teams ranked in the preseason poll. Emory’s women and men are both ranked in the Division III South Region poll. The women are ranked first, and the men are ranked fourth. Berry’s women are ranked 10th.

“The collegiate race is small, but it’s real important for us to get the season started,” Deaton says. “We want to run at a competitive level, so we can get a true indication of our fitness and have a good marker from where we’re starting from and what goals we can shoot for at the end of the season.”

Along with Emory and Berry, LaGrange, Oglethorpe and Savannah College of Art and Design’s teams will compete in the college race.