TCEC alumna Sydney Bolyard finishes in fourth place for UNG Nighthawks at Peach Belt XC Preview
Oakwood, Ga. – Just a few weeks ago, after finishing in eighth place at the UNG XC Invitational, former Tri-County Early College High School standout Sydney Bolyard was aiming for a chance to compete in the upcoming Peach Belt Conference’s cross-country championships for the University of North Georgia Nighthawks.
Despite only being a freshman runner for the Nighthawks, Bolyard was already likely to earn a spot on UNG’s championship-bound contingent after two top-10 finishes in her first season. But after running her collegiate-best 5K race and finishing as UNG’s top-runner at the Peach Belt XC Preview on Saturday, the Lady Jaguars alumna guaranteed herself a spot in the championship.
Bolyard ran a frighteningly fast time of 18:28 at UNG’s home course on Halloween, knocking 28 seconds off her previous best time on the course to finish in fourth place among the field of 45 runners at the invitational. She said a major factor in her season-best performance was that she was able to group up with a pair of her teammates at the start of the course and had enough energy to out-kick a few of the girls around her on the final lap of the race.
“Since the course is three laps total, I was trying to be conservative and not go out too fast, not red line,” Bolyard said with a laugh. “So I ended up going out and was able to get in a pack with two other girls, Karmin LeRoy and Claire Mills.
“And we train together all the time, Monday through Sunday pretty much in practice, and our coach tells us, ‘If you can train together, why don’t you race together?’ So we pretty much grouped up and used each other to slowly get closer to the girls in front of us and at the start of the third lap I told myself, ‘Alright, you gotta go now if you want to beat these girls in front of you,’ and so I just gave it everything I had.”
Looking ahead to the Peach Belt Conference Cross Country Championships, Bolyard and the rest of the Lady Nighthawks’ cross-country team will have their hands full against the rival squad from Flager College, which finished a mere three points ahead of North Georgia in the women’s team competition Saturday.
“Our goal was to ride their tails (Flager’s runners) and try to beat them,” Bolyard said of North Georgia’s strategy going into the preview invitational Saturday. “Our team was pretty much stacked up, all of us were behind a girl from Flagler, so they did end up beating us by three points, but it has given us extra fuel for our next race, which will be conference, to hopefully come back, prove ourselves and get what we’ve been wanting.”
With two weeks of training until the Peach Belt Conference Championships, which will be held at the University of North Georgia on the course where she just ran her collegiate-best race, Bolyard said the Nighthawks are ready for the chance to bring home the championship.
“Our coach gathered us up after the meet and he actually said, ‘You know what, I think we’re in the better position. It’s better to be behind the team in the lead and be able to come from the back and have that extra motivation behind you to prove something, then to be ahead and have people on your tail,’ ” Bolyard said of the Nighthawks’ mindset looking ahead to the conference championships.
“We’re really excited and we have two weeks of training coming up, and we’re really looking forward to it.”