The Grady cross-country team competed in its first meet of the season on Wednesday Aug. 5.  The boys finished first of seven teams while the girls finished second of four teams. The boys beat second-place North Atlanta by 22 points, while the girls finished second to the Warriors by a mere point. Grady had five runners in the top 10 in both the girls and boys races.

The top seven boys included Senior Dominic Romeo, who finished second overall with a time of 20:15, senior Troy Kleber (third, 20:28), junior Dennison Romeo (seventh, 21:15), sophomore Carter Guensler (eighth, 21:20), sophomore Miles Jordan (ninth, 21:28), junior Max  Dusenbury (11th, 21:37) and junior Archie Kinnane (12th, 21:38).

The top seven girls included sophomore Lia Pett, who finished second overall with a time of 24:34, sophomore Grace Powers (third, 24:52), senior Isabelle Taft (fourth, 24:53), junior Allison Rapoport (ninth, 26:36), sophomore Margo Stockdale (10th, 27:20), freshman Meredith Fossitt (11th, 27:21) and senior Kate de Give (13th, 27:37).

Grady competes in six meets at Grant Park throughout the season against teams from North Atlanta, Coretta S. King, Jonesboro, Washington, Douglass, Maynard Jackson, Best Academy and Carver. Though there are many teams, Grady’s main competitor is North Atlanta.

“They did fine.” Coach Jeff Cramer said. “We’re making progress. North Atlanta will be our main competition in the city this year.”

Cramer said that the first meet of the season is always a “shake up” for Grady. He also said that because of the hot conditions, the team doesn’t start to really race until after the first few meets.

“We always take it easy on the first lap or two,” Cramer said. “We don’t worry about places. We don’t worry about numbers, scores. We don’t even worry much about times.”