Since it was his last race of the season, Daniel Mihaescu went out in style.
The Collegedale Academy junior held off Red Bank's Christian Rudd and earned the Region 3-A/AA boys' individual cross country title at the five-kilometer meet Tuesday at Camp Jordan Park.
Sweetwater's boys and Arts & Sciences' girls also were region champions, while Red Bank's and Boyd-Buchanan's boys and Polk County's and Sequoyah's girls also qualified for the TSSAA state meet Nov. 1 at Percy Warner Park in Nashville.
With Collegedale being a Seventh-day Adventist school, Mihaescu will not be able to participate in the state meet. He cleared Tuesday's course in 17 minutes, 39.07 seconds.
"It was my goal to come here, be first and get my personal record," Mihaescu said. "When I got to the last 200 meters, I started to sprint, but I was afraid I had started my sprint too early and I was going to get caught."
Sequoyah senior Danielle March was the girls' individual champion. CSAS freshman KiAnna Queener was second, running the course in 22:41.93.
"I really thought I could have done better, because I wanted to beat my record," Queener said. "There was only one hill today and there was a lot of downhill, so I really liked the course as a whole, but I'm kind of happy with how things went."
Her spirits improved when it was announced that the Lady Patriots won the region championship. The same could be said for coach Mark Dragoo, who has three freshmen and four juniors in his top seven.
"If you soaked my three freshmen in water, they'd weigh 200 pounds," he said. "I think we could have run a little better in spots today, but we have the chance to be really good if this group stays together."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.