Page High didn't have one girl interested in running cross country five years ago. Now, they are TSSAA 6A-AA Regional champions thanks to a strong team effort at Steeplechase.
"This is huge for our girls program," said Patriot coach Marion Andreescu. "Our girls have come a long way in my five years here. It's amazing how far they've come. I'm very proud of them."
Page was led by junior Gigi Maddox, who took first-place honors in 20:05. She was followed by Madelynne Cadeau, who finished second in 20:40. Anna Hurd (sixth), Sara Regener (eighth) and Alex Williams (10th).
Page won the meet with 27 points. They were followed by first-year school Nolensville in second with 66 points and Chris Presbyterian Academy in third with 98 points.
"It will be a lot tougher next week," said Andreescu. "There are some good teams in the East and Central Magnet is a very good team too. Hopefully, we can be in the thick of it."
It wasn't a surprise win for the Page boys, who have captured four titles in the past five years. They won this year with 24 points.
"Our boys did what we thought they'd do," said Andreescu. "Next week will be the challenge for them. Knoxville Catholic will be tough for us to beat.."
The Page boys have been led the last four years by senior Colin Lamb. Lamb, who has given an oral commitment to run for Dayton, claimed individual honors in 16:55
"I felt good today, which is the most important thing," said the Patriot senior, who explained that he's coming off a hip injury which has kept him out for much of the season.
"This is only my second race," he said, "but I've had a good month of training now so hopefully it will pay off at state and I can run a good time and possibility win."
Others scoring for Page were Daniel Davis (fourth in 17:25), Jacob Cucullu (fifth in 17:28), Ryan Caldwell (sixth in 17:37) and Mick Pulis (eighth in 17:50).
Nolensville again took second, this time, in the boys race with 66 points and CPA was third with 98 points.
Knoxville Webb repeated as a double winner in the Division II Class A races.. Junior Carter Coughlin paced the boys to victory with a blue-ribbon time of 16:24. The Webb boys had just 23 points in outdistancing University School Nashville (56 points) and Franklin Road Academy (97 points). The girls had 31 points in winning their race. The Tigers were again second with 53 points and Davidson Academy was third. King Academy's Niamh Schumacher won the race in 18:33, the second fastest girls time of the day.
In addition to the Page girls, Franklin High's boys were another surprise state qualifier. The Rebels finished third in the AAA race with 86 points. It is the first time since 2004 the Franklin boys have qualified for the state meet.
"We're happy to make a little history," said Franklin coach Cormac Carolan. "I know it had been a while since the boys made state. We have a young team and they did very well. I think they all ran their best times for this course."
The Brentwood boys rolled to the team title with just 18 points. It was the Bruins 13th regional crown in the last 16 years. Independence finished second with 83 points and was the other team to advance in AAA.
Brentwood's Taylor Vroom and Brodey Hasty tied for first place in 15:26, one of the fastest regional winning times ever on the 5K Steeplechase course.
"We were trying to work on hitting our paces (designated split times)," said Hasty. "That went for the whole team. Not just Taylor and I. We wanted to work on hitting our times and getting our fifth, sixth and seventh runners to run in a pack with our third and fourth runners and they did that.... That's what we need."
Vroom said the Bruins weren't looking ahead by any means.
"We have some big meets (Nike Regional and Nationals) ahead of us," the Brentwood senior stated, "but we're focusing on one meet at a time. Next meet is state and we want to see how well we can do. Naturally we want to win, but we're not thinking about anything else."
Vroom and Hasty weren't the only ones to turn in extremely fast times, as Ravenwood junior Annika Sleenhof ran a blazing 17:53 to win the AAA girls race. Sleenhof's time was the fastest time run in the girls regional since Independence's Kathy Kroeger clocked a 17:31 in claiming the 2008 championship.
"I wanted to see if I could run around 18:00," said Sleenhof. "I got a little under it, so I'm happy with that. I know state will be tougher. Dobyns Bennett has a really good girl and there may be some others. I'm looking forward to running against them."
Huge Fogg was another double winner on the day, capturing the 5A-AA boys crown with 48 points and the girls title with 42 points."