America's cross-country courses get their names in various ways, and some of those names have become famous--Van Cortlandt Park, Pre's Trail, Mount Trashmore, Rim Rock Farm. In Georgia, Carrollton High's home cross-country course goes by a less colorful name: "The State Meet Course."


That says it all, though. Since 1994, Carrollton has been the home of Georgia's state championship in high school cross country. Carrollton's course has changed frequently over the last 20 years. Veteran coaches can tell you about the changes, and offer opinions about the relative difficulty of the various versions of the course. Two things haven't changed, though--it has continued to be "The State Meet Course," and no one has ever described it as fast.


Each September Carrollton hosts the Carrollton Orthopedic Clinic Cross-Country Invitational. Georgia schools flock to the Invitational to preview "The State Meet Course," but also because it's a well-run event with great competition. If it weren't a quality meet, it wouldn't attract enough athletes to fill eleven races. It also wouldn't attract out-of-state schools, teams that have no particular interest in Georgia's "State Meet Course." The visitors come from Alabama, and they come from Florida.


Florida cross-country runners have been making the trip to Carrollton for quite a few years now. Flagler Palm Coast's Justin Harbor won the boys' championship race in 2005, and Kayla Hale of Holy Trinity won the girls' title in 2006 and 2007. More recently, Leon's Sukhi Khosla won the boys' race in 2013. The Chiles High boys' won the team title in 2005 and 2006. Those are just the highlights of Florida performances at the Carrollton Invitational.


The 2014 Carrollton Invitational is this Saturday, 13 September 2014. Chiles High won't be there trying to repeat past triumphs; the Timberwolves will be competing in Ocala at the Florida Horse Park Invitational. Nevertheless the Sunshine State will be well represented by five schools--Flagler Palm Coast, Holy Trinity, Leon, Mandarin, and Winter Park.

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Leon has some history at the Invitational. "Carrollton has been on our schedule for the past six years," said Coach Andrew Wills. Why? "Coach Musselwhite does a great job on the meet, it's well run, and it's a nice break from racing the usual Florida teams every week. The team looks forward to this week every year."


One of the Lions looking forward to Carrollton this year is Sukhi Khosla, a Carrollton veteran. This will be Khosla's fourth race on "The State Meet Course." As a freshman, Khosla ran fourth on the Leon team at Carrollton, clocking a mundane 18:11.78. As a sophomore, he improved that to a 16:20.32, finishing runner-up to Austin Sprague of St. Pius X by a little over a second. As a junior, Khosla won the 2013 Carrollton Invitational in 15:53.65, six seconds ahead of runner-up Kevin Mills of Peachtree Ridge and 19 seconds ahead of Sprague. This year Mills and Sprague are gone, but Khosla is back as defending champion--three state titles in his pocket and with a #15 pre-season national ranking by DyeStat.


Khosla's counterpart in the girls' championship race is Landmark Christian junior Kathryn Foreman, the returning 2013 champion. Foreman won last year's race by nearly 200 meters. She followed that up by winning her second GHSA cross-country title and with a trip to the 2013 Foot Locker Nationals. Foreman was listed #78 nationally in DyeStat’s pre-season rankings.


The Florida girl with the best chance of challenging Foreman in her home state just might be Winter Park freshman Rafaella Gibbons. Gibbons was named DistancePreps Frosh of the Week based on her 18:27.70 win at the Astronaut Invitational. Gibbons is fast, and she'll have another chance to show how fast at Carrollton on Saturday.


Finishing just behind Gibbons at Astronaut at 18:33.70, Holy Trinity junior Shelby Smith will also be making the trip to Carrollton. Like Gibbons, Smith has to be considered capable of running with Kathryn Foreman. Shelby Smith will be part of a rather large Holy Trinity contingent headed to the Peach State. "We are taking 60 kids from 7-12 grade," reports Coach Doug Butler.


As for the prospects of his athletes, Butler doesn't seem too concerned. "Just a fun trip for a hard summer of training is how we are looking at this weekend," says the coach. "We have one goal and that is on Nov. 15 [the date of Florida's state meet]. So whatever happens this Saturday is just small fry compared to the big picture."


Carrollton, Georgia, isn't that far from the southern reaches of the Appalachian Mountains, and "The State Meet Course" has a reputation for being hilly. Coach Butler thinks his Holy Trinity athletes are prepared for the slopes. "We hit the hills pretty hard this summer," he reports. Leon's Coach Wills is even less concerned. Tallahassee, Leon's home, has been described by 19th century travel writers as "Piedmont Florida" and "the foothills of the foothills of the Appalachians." The Lions opened in Tallahassee at the Cougar Challenge, held in notoriously hilly Phipps Park.


"The Cougar Challenge was a great tune-up for the hilly Carrollton venue," said Coach Wills. "The runners shouldn't have to adjust at all to this course."


Mandarin, on the other hand, is located in Duval County, one of those places so flat that the only way to get in a hill workout is to dig a hole and run out of it. Coach Jim Schmitt of Mandarin compensated for this over the summer.


"While we have training weaknesses regarding hills and terrain in Jacksonville, our summer training and camp included mountain-like trails at Berry College in Georgia."


In fact, the Pinhoti Trail, which follows the Appalachians into Alabama, runs near the Berry campus.


But for Coach Schmitt, "The concern is not the nature of the course; it's the knowledge of the course. We hope to get there early enough Friday evening to spend some time with the course and get a feel for our running plan."


Schmitt did mention that he hopes to use the trip as part of his team's preparation. "Traveling in general has its issues. Including overnight trips is part of the teaching process for our program. The athletes need to adjust to the routines of overnight road trips as we head into November. Getting adjusted to it early is part of our training."


Because, after all, the FHSAA State Final in November will be an overnight trip. Like all the coaches, Mandarin's Schmitt has his eye on that prize.


"Our goals continue to be to be competitive at the end of season," says Schmitt. "Carrollton is just another meet on that path."


History, goals, and preparation may all vary. One thing doesn't. Once the starting gun goes off, every athlete in the race will be doing their very best to win. And there will be some very good athletes at the Carrollton Orthopedic Clinic Invitational.


"It'll be good," said Leon's Sukhi Khosla.


Yes, it will.

Northwest Florida Correspondent Herb Wills

Herb Wills' running career goes back to the 1971 boys' age-group mile at the Florida Relays. Since losing that race he has won the 1976 Florida High School class 4A cross-country championship, 1979 AAU USA junior titles in cross-country and the 10,000 meters, and the 1989 TAC USA 30K national championship. As a distance runner at Florida State University from 1978 to 1982, he was NCAA All-American three times in track and once in cross country, and won a silver medal in the marathon at the 1981 World University Games. Graduating Florida State with a degree in mathematics, in the following years Wills ran in the USA Olympic Marathon Trials in 1984, 1988, and 1992, and placed tenth in the Boston Marathon in 1989. After more than a few years of duty as a hurdle setter and lane judge at track meets, Wills discovered that the public address announcer not only got to sit down at meets but was also sheltered from the rain. Since that revelation you can hear him with a microphone in his hand at several track and cross-country events in the Tallahassee area. Writing is another activity you can do while sitting down, and Wills has written about running for Racing South magazine and Tallahassee's local newspaper, the Tallahassee Democrat.

You can read more running related tidbits in his blog at http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/