Hawks’ middle school cross country set for state
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – While the high school cross country teams in Clarksville begin preparation for next week’s region meet, the middle school athletes are preparing for its state meet this weekend.
Rossview Middle feels it has as good a chance as any middle school team in the state at capturing the program’s first state championship.
The meet is schedule for 12:45 p.m. Saturday at Victor Ashe Park in Knoxville and will feature Mt. Juliet as the heavy favorite to capture the middle school state title. But the Hawks have enough runners that have put together an impressive enough season to feel that an upset could be in the making Saturday.
“Mt. Juliet is very good,” Rossview Middle assistant coach Rick Martin said. “That’s a very good team and they’ve been undefeated all year, so it’s no surprise that they’d be the favorite going into state. But we feel like we have some kids that can challenge them and we feel like we have a great shot at this too.”
Rossview has faced Mt. Juliet twice this season and both times the Golden Bears have won. It’s the only two losses the Hawks have suffered, but Rossview lost both times without a full compliment of its runners. With a healthy team going into Saturday’s state race, Rossview not only has confidence but the numbers to back that up.
The Hawks competed in last weekend’s Nashville Regional race at Percy Warner Park and took first place. St. Henry finished second and Brentwood Middle took third. But Rossview had four of its seven runners finish below the 12-minute mark and three of those four runners finished in the top 10 during the two-mile meet. With six qualifying sites around Tennessee, only 21 runners across the state finished with a time below 12 minutes and Rossview Middle had four of those times.
“There are so many great young runners in this state and I’ll tell you, we’ll put our kids up against anyone,” Martin said.
Ryan Martin had the top finish among all Rossview runners at region in Nashville last week with an 11:10. He took fourth place overall. Teammate Ben Zirkle finished fifth in a time of 11:15 followed by Christian Woller (11:36) who took ninth. Jacob Patton was the fourth runner to run a sub-12 minute race when he clocked in at 11:48 to take 12th. Two other Rossview runners were within a minute of that mark, including Jackson Miller (12:28) and Braiden Stevens (12:56). Pearson Ezell finished in a time of 13:01.
The Hawks’ team consist of eighth graders with the exception of Stevens who is a sixth grader. The team’s JV runners include Andrew Welch, Jacob Zydel, Devon Baynham, Cade Story and Devon Legendre.
“Two weeks ago we ran a race at Sharp Spring in Smyrna and we ran that without Patton, Stevens and Ezell,” Rick Martin said. “But three of our kids finished fifth, sixth and seventh in that race.”
Patton was one of two runners that wasn’t available for either race when Rossview competed against Mt. Juliet. But with a full team this weekend, and fast times, the Hawks — coached by Roland Zirkle — are armed with the skills to pull off that upset.
“The kids have worked hard, really hard,” Martin said. “We’re very excited to go to state and I’m sure we’ll perform well there.”
Rossview’s girls’ middle school team finished seventh overall last week in Nashville and didn’t qualify for state as a team. But four individuals qualified, led by two seventh graders and a pair of sixth graders. Seventh graders Sierra Saenz and Gabby Kowalski took ninth and 37th, respectively, last week. Sixth graders Samantha Campos and Riley Decker took 30th and 50th, respectively.
George Robinson. Prep writer. 245-0747. georgerobinson@theleafchronicle.com. Follow on Facebook and Twitter: @Cville_Sports.