Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Bainbridge and Grace Christian Academy cross country teams will race in the Dueling Summits invitational meet Saturday in Tallahassee.

Eighth-grade runner Carrington Smith is competing in the middle school 3k event. She dropped her time by a minute and a half at last week’s meet and is looking to do it again this weekend.

“I’m excited about improving my time,” Smith said.

Both schools competed in the annual meet last year. Bainbridge Senior Haydyn Clock is using her history with the course to prepare for its tricky sections.

“It’s all hills,” Clock said. “You’ve got to know that your downhills are your recovery. So go up the uphills hard and recover on the downhill.”

The course is located in the Elinor Klapp-Phipps Park. According to the race website, the 5K loop is mainly shaded and has a varied terrain of grass, dirt, and hard-packed gravel roads.

“Terrain-wise, there’s zero asphalt,” said Bainbridge Head Coach Eric Conner. “The hardest part, I think, is there’s an uphill that’s gravel.” 

Dueling Summits will be the opening race of Grace Christian Academy’s season. Head Coach Heather Smith said the meet will serve as a starting point for her runners.

“I want them to go out there, run hard, and use what they’ve learned and just race smart,” Smith said. “It’s hard to tell right now, you know, we started training late… We’ll see how it goes, and we’ll take that and see how the season goes from there.”

Races start at 8 a.m. Saturday morning.