By Grant Mollett, East Ridge High School
November 29, 2025-Charlotte, North Carolina
This past Saturday the Brooks Cross Country South Regional was held at McAlpine Creek Park in Charlotte, North Carolina. Earlier this year Footlocker, the sponsor of the South Regional for the past 45 years, announced that this year’s race was cancelled. Thankfully, a few weeks later Brooks stepped in and took over the sponsorship for the South Regional, so that the race could happen.
Now, for 46 years the South Regional has been one of the four regional qualifiers for the Nationals held at Balboa Park in San Diego, California. The South Regional takes runners from fourteen different states, including Florida, Texas, Kentucky, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia, Arkansas, Mississippi, West Virginia, and Louisiana and US territories. There is an array of events on the day of the South Regional, including high school grade level races for boys and girls and the boys and girls championship races, for runners seeking to qualify for the Nationals in San Diego. The top ten runners from the championship races qualify for San Diego and ultimately compete with thirty other elite runners from the other three regions. The South Regional is also an event that college coaches regard as a race and course that provides results for recruiting prospective runners. The longevity of the event, the competition year after year, and the challenging cross country course give results that college coaches have come to trust in their recruiting endeavors.
This year, the East Ridge High School Girls Cross Country team had seven runners participate in the South Regional at McAlpine. All seven girls ran in the combined girls grade level race, which started promptly at 9:30 AM in frigid temperatures. The course at McAlpine Park begins with a long near one kilometer straightaway. The course then u-turns and takes the runners through a wooded area and up a steep hill at the midpoint. The course then descends and the runners circle a pond before running most of the third mile in another wooded area of the park. Once the runners re-emerge to circle the pond one last time there is approximately a quarter mile to reach the finish line. Awards were earned by grade level – top ten grade level finishers received gold medals, 11-20 grade level finishers received silver medals, and 21-30 grade level finishers received bronze medals. Out of a field of 137 runners, each of East Ridge’s athletes earned medals for their performances at Brooks!
Here are the results for the East Ridge High School runners who participated in Brooks:
Rhyen Foley; nineteenth overall; finished in 19:42; earned a gold medal in the twelfth grade division
Hortance Sallault; 26th overall; finished in 19:56; earned a gold medal in the ninth grade division
Jessie Volz; 29th overall; finished in 20:01; earned a gold medal in the eleventh grade division
Taylor Walker; 48th overall; finished in 20:58; earned a silver medal in the eleventh grade division
Helen Robertson; 49th overall; finished in 20:59; earned a silver medal in the tenth grade division
Lexi Whitehead; 75th overall; finished in 21:54; earned a bronze medal in the eleventh grade division
Jamie Volz; 85th overall; finished in 22:36; earned a silver medal in the ninth grade division
Full results for the Brooks Cross Country South Regional can be found here: https://nc.milesplit.com/meets/712760-brooks-xc-championships-south-2025/results.
