A Season of Growth: AIS Cross Country Teams Shine in 2024

After ending their memorable run at State on November 8th, Coach Fran’s 2024 cross-country team’s season has come to a close. Filled with determination, well-deserved personal records, and unwavering team spirit, the boys' and girls' teams both made it to State, something neither had achieved in 2023 or 2022.

The season's first meet was on September 7th at Milton High School, arguably the hardest meet of the season. The constant, steep hills on dirt and gravel terrain made for a challenging start to the season. But it was only up from there. The next Saturday was the Wire2Wire Invitational, a “team favorite” according to sophomore Sebastian Esparza-Forero. Times dropped significantly, ranging from 2.5 to 3 minutes faster, showing the hard work the team put in during that week of practice. Claire de Wendel, a freshman superstar, placed 2nd overall in the Girls JV race, which also helped the girls' team place 3rd out of 15 teams. 

The following week was the Wingfoot XC Classic, the largest meet of the season. The team did exceptionally well, with three teammates placing in their races. Nihaal Singh, a sophomore, placed 2nd overall in his JV Boys race, along with Zachery Pemberton, a junior, who placed 10th. Another incredible finish was from Claire de Wendel, who placed 9th out of the 432 runners in her race. Other notable finishes throughout the season were a 10th-place finish by Zachery Pemberton and a 3rd-place finish by Claire de Wendel in the JV

Wesleyan races. Claire had two more top-10 finishes in girls' varsity races at the Asics and Last Chance Invitationals.  

This season, the team had two seniors, Yaëlle Mathiot and Maansi Boddapti. Yaëlle has run cross country for seven seasons at AIS, dating all the way back to 6th grade. After graduating in the spring, she plans to either study professional flight at Purdue or Auburn, or study aerospace engineering at Georgia Tech. Yaëlle also plans to continue running after cross country ends, as she will do track for the 7th straight season in the spring and run the Atlanta Half Marathon in March. Maansi has been running cross country for four years, spending her first three at Atlanta Girls' School before joining AIS for her senior year. Her favorite memories of her cross-country seasons at Atlanta Girls School were being the team captain last year, and running a 25:15 PR at Wingfoot. Although her season was cut short due to an injury, her favorite memories of her season here at AIS were the neighborhood runs and getting to know her new teammates. Her plan for the future is to study veterinary medicine at the University of Georgia or abroad. 

After placing 10th at Sectionals on November 2nd, the boys and girls teams qualified for the 1a to 3a Private State Championship. With high morale, the team made their way to Carrolton, Georgia on November 8th for the championship race. Both the course and the competitors were extremely challenging, leading to results that weren’t what the team had hoped for. Nevertheless, spirits were positive as the season ended, and the team was proud of how far they were able to come. “The challenges at the beginning of this season, set me up for success later on.”, says Anouk Robbiani, a sophomore who did cross-country for the first time this year. The team’s determination and hard work throughout the season allowed them to live out their highest potential and make significant improvements not only compared to last season but also from their first meet to their last.