Albany Area YMCA Invitational draws 17 schools for inaugural cross-country meet

ALBANY — Tony Duckworth went for a run last spring and apparently came back with a cross-country meet.

The Albany Area YMCA CEO was among the runners participating in the organization’s Healthy Kids Day 5K when he began looking at the trail winding through the YMCA Sports Park on Gillionville Road a little differently.

There were already runners. There was already a trail.

Why not bring high school cross country here?

A few months later, Duckworth’s idea has become the inaugural Albany Area YMCA Invitational, which will bring runners from 17 schools to Albany on Saturday morning.

“We are excited to host the event,” Duckworth said. “I ran in our Healthy Kids Day 5K last spring and thought we should host a high school event here to maximize our assets.”

There was just one problem.

Duckworth knew the YMCA. He needed someone who knew cross country.

So he called Deerfield-Windsor coach Jake Clawson.

“I reached out to Coach Jake Clawson at Deerfield-Windsor to discuss using our Sports Park trail,” Duckworth said. “He endorsed the idea and he introduced me to area coaches.”

Then they put the meet on MileSplit.

That’s when Duckworth discovered they weren’t the only ones interested.

“Once the race was uploaded to MileSplit, it took off,” he said. “We have 17 high schools coming from the Albany area, middle Georgia and Valdosta.”

The first race begins at 8 a.m. Saturday with the high school boys, followed by the high school girls. Middle school races will complete the inaugural event.

Clawson’s Deerfield-Windsor teams will be among those competing, although he hasn’t decided whether all of his runners will race.

That’s because the Knights are coming off a demanding season opener at the Cecil Field Summer Classic in Jacksonville.

“We’ll run the whole girls team, but I’m still deciding if I’ll run my top group of boys or if they need a full week of training instead,” Clawson said. “We picked up some good data after Friday night’s race and I don’t want to over-race them.”

There was plenty for Clawson to digest.

Junior Whatley Fountain led the Deerfield boys in Jacksonville with a 15-minute, 51-second 5K, finishing 11th in a deep field and coming within 13 seconds of his personal best.

Junior Daniel Roland delivered one of the Knights’ more encouraging performances, running 17:47 for the fastest season-opening time of his career.

Adam Mallow broke 19 minutes with an 18:59, while Mills Cothren finished in 19:39.

The Lady Knights provided Clawson with something different.

They provided a pack.

Junior Sophie Logan and freshman Alli Roland crossed together in 24:07. Sydney Daniel followed in 25:30, Emily Rutledge ran 25:35 and freshman Reagan Church finished in 25:56.

Only 1 minute, 49 seconds separated Deerfield’s first five finishers.

Clawson liked what he saw, particularly considering the quality of the field and the August heat. Now he must decide whether another race eight days later is the best thing for his top boys or whether a week of uninterrupted training would be more valuable.

The girls, however, will race.

For Deerfield-Windsor and the other schools arriving Saturday, the meet offers another early-season measuring stick.

For the YMCA, it represents something bigger.

The Sports Park already had the trail. Albany already had high school and middle school runners looking for places to compete.

Duckworth simply connected the two.

What began as an idea during a community 5K will become a 17-school cross country meet Saturday morning.

And if the inaugural Albany Area YMCA Invitational takes hold, that run last spring may have started something that lasts considerably longer than 3.1 miles.