This past Thursday, the Richmond Hill High School Cross Country team hosted their 5th annual Fishy Invitational. With pristine running conditions from mid-afternoon until the late evening, 511 runners from 29 different schools throughout the coastal empire attended the meet.

  The female varsity team at RHHS reigned victorious at the Fish Hatchery, once again claiming the overall 1st place team trophy for the Invitational with junior Rachel Hammesfahr placing first and freshman Jennifer Thorpe placing third.

  "This was a really good race for me personally as well as the girls varsity team," said Hammesfahr after the race. "I am a lot stronger both mentally and physically than I was at the beginning of the year and was very happy to get my first win and a season personal record at home. The girls team did amazing with our first place overall. I am very confident after this that we will perform well at regionals and state in the coming weeks."

  The boys varsity placed second overall at the meet behind first place Savannah Arts Academy. Out of 147 male runners, senior Tanner Hicks placed second overall, giving him a good judgement of how the regional meet will be in just a few weeks.

  Both the male and female junior varsity teams were also successful, with Jackie Buelow, Chloe Giorgianni, and Avery Waters placing second, third, and fourth respectively on the girls side while Jacob Hedgepath, Avery Mierke, and Michael Wells placed third, fourth, and fifth respectively for the boys.

  RHHS Cross Country coach Levi Sybert felt this was a great break in the mid season lull. "The Fishy Invite was such a breath of fresh air for this point in the season. With basically all but a few coastal area XC teams in attendance, this really shows us how we stack up in the Coastal Empire as well as our region. All 10 schools from our region were in attendance and we held our own. The task now is to keep at what we do best, which is to finish the season strong, peaking at the right times."