THOMASVILLE – Thomas County Central’s most recent cross country meet assured head coach Rosalie Wilson that her boys and girls teams are ready for the Region 1-6A meet in Tifton in less than two weeks.

Central’s boys and girls teams finished seventh out of 17 teams at the Westover Invitational in Albany, Georgia, on Oct. 7.

“They’re doing exactly what we want. We’re getting faster than we were last year. Our region meet is (Thursday), Oct. 26 in Tifton, and we’re all eyeing that meet right now. We’re hoping that they can peak at the perfect time so they can race well there,” Wilson said. “We had several kids make PRs (personal records), and a lot of our younger kids stepped up. It was a great meet.”

Wilson was especially pleased with her boys runners. They have steadily improved their times over the past few meets.

“I was very happy with that, and we were missing one of our top boy runners, so that was a really good placement for them,” Wilson said. “I was very proud watching them run, because they were much more condensed than they have been. Normally, you have to wait a while between your first guy and your last guy. At this meet, the first guy would come by and before you know it our last runner came by, and we were on to the next spot to see them. They were very condensed, which is really great.”

Central’s girls raced without star runner Cadence Curnalia but featured freshman Emma Grace Vealey, who finished first on the team.

“She is a great little runner. I think it was good confidence boost for her. She’s a really big part of the team. That was a big deal, definitely,” Wilson said.

Central has one final regular season meet, scheduled for this Saturday, Oct. 21 at Pelham.