Photo Credit: Sami Dickerson[/caption]A huge snowstorm tore through the city of Buffalo, NY this past week. Snow is piled roof high all over the city. The snow in some areas has reached as high as 8 feet and 13 deaths have already been accounted for. While many kids are out enjoying the time off and playing in the white bundle of fun, many parents and adults are worried about the condition of their houses. With all the snow on roofs, they are starting to sag and get soggy. 30 buildings have already collapsed from the snow.
It is very, very cold in Buffalo. In North Carolina, when it reaches 40 degrees Fahrenheit, some residents think that is cold, but it takes eight feet of snow for Buffalo to get attention. When it snowed really hard for us last year, it was only 1.5 ft at the most in Hillsborough, and school was cancelled for weeks. Luckily for Buffalo kids, they will be out for quite some time, until the snow melts. Fortunately, North Carolina did not get eight feet of snow, because the state does not have the equipment to handle that kind of extreme weather.
The snow is starting to melt, but the temperature is expected to go from freezing to almost 60 degrees in the next week. This would cause major flooding and increase damage to western New York. This is impacting the sports in Buffalo as well--the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo University had to reschedule their respective football games. This is definitely a cold part of Buffalo’s history.
Photo Credit: ohsrunning.com[/caption]The boys cross country team has improved greatly throughout the season. Their record stands at a solid 4-6. That may not look good on paper, but everyone's times have improved tremendously. Jamison Askew’s first 5k of the season was around 21 minutes, but this past weekend at the return to Hagan Stone Park, he ran an 18:56 5k, far exceeding his goal of 20:05. Askew is not the only runner improving. Over 10 Orange runners set a PR (personal record) at the race.
Their most recent race was at Chapel Hill High on September 30, 2014. They raced against Chapel Hill, Oxford Webb, and Northern Vance. The results of the race were not in at press time. The top runners for the teams were not racing as fast as they normally would, because they were saving their legs for the “Wendy's Invitational” this weekend.
When asked about this upcoming weekend, Coach Russell Westbrook said, “I am very excited. We have a lot of fast juniors and seniors, and I am looking forward to see what they can accomplish.” Only the varsity runners will be running this weekend, as the team is only allowed to run seven runners.
Cross Country
On September 3, the Orange High cross country team traveled to Jordan High School for the first race of the season. The race consisted of four schools, Orange, Jordan, Research Triangle High School, and Hillside. The girls team did very well, beating all three of the other teams and starting the season 3-0. Orange’s own Adalynn Fleming, Claire Barger, and Julianna Lester were the top three runners in the girls race. The boys team did decently well for the first meet of the season. They were 1-2, winning a close race against Hillside. This was the first race for many of Orange’s runners, and they have been working hard.
The next meet will be on Saturday, September 13 at Hagan Stone Park in Greensboro. They will race at that course twice this year, so it will be a good measure of how fast they have gotten over the course of the year. The team has been running hard all year long and this is just the beginning, they can only get faster from here.