DI-AAA
Although the Farragut boys graduated 2 of their top 5 from the 2022 championship squad, the 2023 Admirals easily repeated as AAA state champions, placing 4 in the top 8 with Matteo Tonnos securing the runner-up spot individually and Braden Ebbert placing 5th. The Admirals mimicked last year's championship performance, scoring 41 points, but the margin of victory over second shrunk from 60 to 26 points. Evan Beeler continued his breakout season, running 15:44 as Farragut's 4th finisher. Although Farragut's 5th man had been a revolving door throughout the season, Tanner Coggin stepped up at the state meet, running a personal best of 16:25, which greatly helped the Admirals defend their state title.
The Hardin Valley Boys improved upon their 10th-place finish last year by taking 8th as a team at the state meet. Led by Carson Long in 16th, HVA built upon their third-place finish at KIL and a runner-up finish at the Region 2 meet. Juniors Gabe Allen and Garrett Hawkins placed 21st and 40th, respectively. HVA graduates two on their varsity 7 (Carson Long and Colbi Young), but have the two top middle schoolers in Isaac Socha and Evan Van De Griff who could contribute next year.
The HVA girls capped off a very strong season with a 2nd place finish at the State Meet, a vast improvement from the 9th place finish in 2022. With 3 in the top 13, HVA edged out Beech by 5 points to take runner-up to Brentwood. Freshman Emma Cissna took 4th in 18:11 and senior Maddie Archdale took 9th in 18:43. With Archdale graduating the Lady Hawks will have to make up for the loss, but HVA has 4 freshmen in the top 5, which keeps them in immediate contention for a KIL and State title over the next few years.
Knoxville runners would ultimately secure 5 out of the top 13 spots at the DI-AAA state meet, with KIL and Region 2 Champion Kate Robinson taking 6th and Karns's Rylee Gifford followed up her 3rd place finish at the Region meet by taking 10th overall. Both are seniors who capped off their final XC season with very strong performances. Gifford and Robinson are poised for a strong track season as they both will come into the spring ranked in the top 11 in both the 1600 and 3200.
DI-AA/A
Alcoa's Graham Mizell was the fastest Knoxville area runner in the DI-A/AA state meet, placing 36th in 17:19. It was a strong season for Mizell, who improved 56 seconds year over year. There was some speculation that Alcoa's Sam Bridges might recover from injury in time to race at Sanders Ferry, but ultimately he did not. Alcoa's team score would place them 19th out of 32 teams. Knoxville's L&N Stem would place 20th, 3 points behind Alcoa.
The Alcoa girls' team took home third place overall led by Kacey Holliday (19:23) and Lily Bridges (19:45), taking 7th and 15th respectively. The Tornadoes' 1-5 average at the state meet improved by 1:25 year over year, and with no seniors and Bridges being the only junior in the scoring 5, Alcoa's future is very bright.