Oakland has the next best 1-2 punch after HVA just lacking the same depth. It’s a long season but with Brock Baker and Conner Thompson leading the charge for this team anything is possible for this team. They won’t be any worse than 6th due to them two. Their 3, 4 and 5 are a lot like Independence, they are good but unproven. With maybe the best runner in Tennessee leading your team makes you work that much harder.            

  decorated runner Adrian Etheridge, signing with UNC-Asheville means leaving a tradition to start another at her new school. The cross country runner has been a state champ three of her four years at ORHS but the Bulldogs are a relatively new cross country program and had just what Etheridge was looking for in a school. "I've known since July (I wanted to go to UNC-Asheville)," she said. "I'm planning on majoring in art with a concentration in photography. Art is one of their top five majors. That was one of the only places I could run and study art, and Asheville is just a really great place." (via http://www.oakridger.com)  

The long hours of practice, early mornings and painful aches turned into smiles for the Oak Ridge girls cross country team on Saturday. (via http://www.oakridger.com)  

On a hot and dry day in Kentucky, Chris Walden (Carmel, IN) and Emma Brink (Sacred Heart, KY) took the individual titles at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park in some blazing times. Walden's 14:57 is an improvement upon his showing last weekend against Zach Wills in Ohio, while Brink is a repeat winner after a close win last year. Here's a look at the races from today. (Photo by Dan Andrews)

Another edition of the Trinity/Valkyrie Invitational is upon and there is plenty of anticipation this time around. Carmel (IN) will make the trip south to see if they can steal the show at another big invite, while some of Kentucky's finest will look to make their name against some national-level talent. Full preview, forecast, and virtual meet breakdown are inside.

  Nike Indoor Nationals was everything I imagined it to be and then some. It was without a doubt the greatest track meet, indoor or outdoor, that I have ever raced in. The only complaint I had about the meet was the fact that I was scheduled to race at 7:45 in the morning.

  I woke up at 5 a.m. and left for the Reggie Lewis Center with Coach, John, and his family at 5:45.  We were the very first athletes at the track!  We looked around for about 20 minutes and then, extremely nervous, I began warming up and getting ready for the big race.  I ran an 11.32 2 mile, which means it was about an 11.29 3200.  Am I happy?  Yes..  Am I satisfied?  No.  I know i'm sort of contradicting myself, but I know I can do much, much better than that and this whole experience made me realize just that: I can do much better than what i've been running.  

  Hey again!  So tomorrow's the big day, and I have already had so much fun!  Thought you all would like to know that Coach Etheridge did survive the plane and did really well--he just had to close his eyes a couple of times haha.  We left the heinous and stormy Buford, Georgia (where my teammates ran so well despite the conditions!) and entered sunny, warm Boston!  Definitely no snow! 

  I am excited to be here in Boston racing in a national meet. This is the second national meet I have been to since I have been in high school; my sophomore year I went to Nike Team Nationals. I hope this meet can be just as great of an experience as NTN. I will miss the team atmosphere of NTN, but I am very fortunate to have my parents, Coach Etheridge, and friends Melanie, Clint, and Matt here in Boston to hang out with. 

  Hey everybody!  Well since I qualified for Nike Indoor Nationals, I get to write a journal thing, ya know, like Matt and Clint did for Nike Outdoor Nationals.  First of all this is a really big honor to even be able to go to Boston and to write in this journal.  Currently, I am in Buford, Georgia, hanging out with my oak ridge teammates and cheering them on tomorrow during their wet races. 

The 2008 McDonald's X-Country Festival at Maymont will not only help sort out who will be the favorites for state cross country titles this fall, but also who will be the runners and team seeing themselves racing into December in either Portland or San Diego this season. The Jamestown boys (Williamsburg, VA) have been racing at the Maymont Festival for years and this year's meet could be the most important as the top ranked team in Virginia and #2 ranked team in the Southeast region will be the squad which everyone else in the invitational division will be attempting to measure themselves up against and try to knock off the top ranked school from Williamsburg. The race for first among the top individuals should be even more exciting and wide open with five of the top six ranked runners in Virginia in the field as well as 12 of the top 15. Read more... Pictured left by John Herzog: Andrew Colley of Jamestown is the top individual returnee from the 2007 Maymont Festival as Colley placed 3rd in the invite field behind Peter Dorrell and Jason Witt in a time of 15:39.  

  Weekly High School X-Country Regional Team Rankings 2008 Pre-season, with some selected early-season results.  By Marc Bloom and Rich Gonzalez

Check out the photos from the NTN course preview. 

 Both Oak Ridge and Thomas Jefferson ran strong pack races.  Through three runners the two teams were tied with 26 points a piece.  The team from Tennessee pulled out the win with a strong 4-5 back end combination to beat TJ 90-98.  Maclean O'Donnell led the way for Oak Ridge winning the race in 15:54, 17 seconds up on second place finisher Patrick McGregor (Birmingham XC, AL).  Brian Landry placed third to lead Thomas Jefferson

The Baylor Red Raiders arrived at Greenway Farms this morning in Chattanooga, Tennessee rather inconspicuously. No buses painted with their school's name and logo. No big yellow school bus. Not even a team van. They showed up individually, most driving their own cars or car-pooling with a teammate. They didn't have a team tent, either. Nor did they have a sign proclaiming their team's location. Just a collection of duffel bags, water bottles, and spikes marked their team's base location for the day, on a weathered tennis court about four-hundred meters from where the rest of the fifteen teams present for the McCallie Invitational had set up shop for the day. After most of Baylor's mens team had arrived, a yellow car covered in bumper stickers with a bike rack on the back pulled in--ignoring the collegiate runners directing traffic--and parked next to the tennis court. Out climbed Van Townsend and his son, Skylar. Though lacking parades and other festivities often found when warriors leave for battle, the Red Raiders were ready to fight.

With the season not even underway yet, Tennessee has two teams ranked in the top ten  and one on the bubble.  

Rather than host a swim meet, OR has elected to postpone the OR Relays until Monday.

NTN SOUTHEAST REGION RANKINGS Week 3 -- 9/29/06

The teams in this rankings were voted on by coaches from all over the state. We had some major changes from last week.

This is a new era for the Tennessee Classic. It has some new directors and a new distance. What I noticed from the results.

We are proud to announce that, again this year, the Board of Control has given TSSAA permission to participate in the NFHS Coaches Association Award Program. This program is designed to recognize State Active Coaches of the Year and Sectional Coaches of the Year in each sport sanctioned by the Association.

The teams in this rankings were voted on by several coaches from all over the state. These rankings (Coaches\' Poll) will be done every two weeks. In the other weeks we will post a computer generated rankings based solely on elite performances.

Photo by John Herzog With one of the strongest high school cross country fields in the Southeast region year in and year out, the McDonald’s X-country Festival at Maymont will once again deliver a top-notch event to its top-notch competitors this weekend in Richmond. “I would say it was stronger than last year,” says event director Dan Ward. “And last year it was one of the top meets in the Southeast. We have schools from 10 states and the District of Columbia. They’re coming from as far south as Georgia, as far north as New York and as far west as Colorado.” Ward points out that the McDonald’s X-country Festival at Maymont, which has signed up 125 teams with over 2,865 runners, an all-time record, will have more Nike ranked and bubble teams at the national, regional and state level than any other meet in the Southeast. Read on for full story...