It has all come down to this. A phrase based in complete nonsense until you provide content for it. The “it” is the KYA ES/MS Cross Country Program and the “this” is the Area XC Championship meet which acts as the qualifier for the Tennessee State ES/MS Championships. Qualifier positions are up for grabs and teams will be at their best for the meet October 7-8 at Victor Ashe Park. This (article) is a breakdown on the favorites as well as dark horses for those few qualifying positions.
Middle School Girls
Individual: This race may be the closest of the meet with 3 girls that have won a race this season. Niki Narayani (Webb)-2 wins, Sydney Tabor (Unattached) - 2 wins, Addison Smith (Webb) – 1 win are the favorites. Tough to say who has the edge as they have all looked like they could run away with it than someone else steps up and takes the win over the other two girls. However, the title hunt does not end here. Rachel Jordan (Halls), Ashtyn Glover (West Valley), Laura Bretscher (West Valley) and Taylor Cosey (CAK) have all been in the top 5 this year and are poised to push the top girls. Narayani has to be the favorite coming in as the winner on this course at the first meet as well as winning the last regular season meet she comes in with great confidence.
Top 10 Picks: 1. Niki Narayani (Webb), 2. Addison Smith (Webb), 3. Sydney Tabor (Unattached), 4. Taylor Cosey (CAK), 5. Ashtyn Glover (West Valley), 6. Rachel Jordan (Halls), 7. Laura Bretscher (West Valley), 8. Lauren Tabor (Unattached), 9. Madison McCollum (Webb), 10. Maddie Zawisza (Oak Ridge)
Team: When you have a defending state champion in the field you know they are going to be tough. When they lose only 2 out of their top 7 you know they are going to REALLY tough. Webb has managed to carry the target on their back with little trouble. Leading the way are Narayani and Smith who have been top 3 in every meet this fall winning 3 of the meets individually between them. Madison McCollum has been the key for them this year improving greatly from last year (48th at last year’s area championships). Other teams that are competing for those 5 spots are West Valley, Bearden, Maryville, Karns, Farragut and Alcoa. This race will come down to who has the best 3-5 runners as most teams have excellent front runners.
Top 6 picks: 1. Webb, 2. West Valley, 3. Bearden, 4. Maryville, 5. Karns, 6. Farragut
Middle School Boys
Individual: The past few years have exhibited a top boy who is the class of the field among increasingly competitive talent. This year continues that trend as Carter Coughlin (Webb) has won every meet this year by a healthy margin. Being a top 10 runner since his 6th grade year he is quite familiar with the front of the race and that experience will show as he sets out to claim his first XC Championship race. That does not mean that the rest of the field is not a tough talented group. Seth Bowden (Maryville), Kenton Bachmann (Cedar Bluff) , Devin Sullivan (Sacred Heart), Stephen Martin (Webb), Nathaniel Blalock (CAK), Ben Hanson (Farragut), Tommy Banker (Farragut) are all top 5 finishers at some point in the year. The parody is great in the race with so many potential top guys. Then there is the dark horse. Jordan VanDruff (Oak Ridge) comes in as the toughest challenger to Coughlin’s chase for the title. Teammates in summer track with the KYA Competitive Team for the past 2 summers they are great friends and great competitors. This summer Carter ran 4:51 (1500) and 9:52 (3000) and Jordan ran 4:46 (1500) and 9:57 (3000) at the AAU Junior Olympics. That being said, it will be an exciting race between the two and could cause one to fall back allowing the aforementioned runners to nab up some positions.
Top 10 Pick: 1. Carter Coughlin (Webb), 2. Jordan VanDruff (Oak Ridge), 3. Seth Bowden (Maryville), 4. Nathaniel Blalock (CAK), 5. Kenton Bachmann (Cedar Bluff), 6. Devin Sullivan (Sacred Heart), 7. Ben Hanson (Farragut), 8. Stephen Martin (Webb), 9. Tommy Banker (Farragut), 10. Gavin Cooper (Campbell Co)
Team: You can virtually rewrite the girl’s team preview first sentence for the boys. Webb, as defending state champions came into the season with a big target on their back. However, losing a lot of top guys from that team they have not been as dominant as in years past. Coach Durkin has a knack for getting her guys ready to go on championship day but there are some teams who appear to be in better position to take the title away. Maryville led by Bowden and Farragut with Banker and Hanson up front appear to be the leaders coming into the race. With Bearden, Webb and Alcoa looking to be the top cluster of teams with eyes on the top 5 team awards. Ambassadors, Sacred Heart and Karns are looking to upset and take one of those spots if they have a great day and another team has an off day.
Top 6 Pick: 1. Maryville, 2. Farragut, 3. Bearden, 4. Webb, 5. Alcoa, 6. Ambassadors
Elementary Girls
Individual: There has been an Elementary Championship for years but this is the first time that this meet acts as a qualifier for state. Top 5 teams and top 30 individuals are eyeing their chance to compete for the first ever Elementary State Championship. Macy Caldwell (Campbell Co) has been the favorite all year winning every meet this year and looks to continue that run coming into the championships. With only one scored meet so far (Johnson University) the favorites have to come from that race. Cathryn Jardet (Hardin Valley), Shelby Deck (Porter), Kaleigh Peevy (Ambassadors) and Rose Winchester (Blue Grass) were the top 5 racers and are all looking to take that same position or better on Monday.
Top 10 Picks: 1. Macy Caldwell (Campbell Co), 2. Cathryn Jardet (Hardin Valley), 3. Shelby Deck (Porter), 4. Kaleigh Peevy (Ambassadors), 5. Rose Winchester (Blue Grass), 6. Anna Snyder (Blue Grass), 7. Marley Townsend (Sequoyah) 8. Reese Hudson (AL Lotts), 9. Abby Foster (Campbell Co), 10. Lattie Midis (Sacred Heart)
Team: Last year featured an exciting race with teams taking great awards home celebrating their team’s accomplishments. That showed that positioning the race as a qualifier to place the top elementary teams in the state against each other as their middle school counterparts have done for years, looks to have increased the depth for this year’s championship. Ambassadors came into Johnson University knowing they had a good group but not knowing how good, until they won the race by 120 points. They seem to be far and away the best group coming into the race but with fall break last week for several teams, there could be runners that have not been accounted for and could make it a great team race. The next nine teams finished within 36 points of each other so the other 4 spots are up for grabs. Picking 5 teams is tough and can only be based off of last week’s race but they’re our 5 other teams that are just as talented and could be qualifiers as well.
Top 10 picks: 1. Ambassadors, 2. Sacred Heart 3. Porter, 4. Hardin Valley, 5. Brickey, 6. Campbell County, 7. Sequoyah, 8. Sterchi, 9. Blue Grass, 10. Northshore
Elementary Boys
Individual: As the top returner from last year, Riley Faulkner (Campbell Co) came in looking to be the favorite winning every race (except 2nd place at state elementary open race) last year as a third grader. However, with every sport you just never know who will show up the next year and surprise and Jackson Dempster (Ambassadors) has fit the bill as co-favorite for the boys title. Winning the first and the last race this year Jackson has finished second to Riley in the second thru fourth race. These two have become friends throughout the season as well as competitors after that surprise upset in week one. This expects to be an excellent rivalry over the coming years once they make the jump to middle school. There were some great boys that showed up at Johnson University to end their preparations for the championship season and form the rest of the top 10.
Top 10 picks: 1. Riley Faulkner (Campbell Co), 2. Jackson Dempster (Ambassadors), 3. Joshua Whitaker (Unattached), 4. Lance Simpson (Farragut), 5. Kyle Keeler (Sterchi), 6. Tristan Fleisch (Farragut), 7. Carson Kammann (Rocky Hill), 8. Connor Brunson (Sacred Heart), 9. Lukas Feibig (Maryville), Brigham Wilson (AL Lotts)
Team: This race again features a top team which is played by Farragut followed by nine teams that are competing for 4 additional spots. Ambassadors seems to be a solid pick to finish second and repeat their Johnson University finish. With 9 teams within 80 points there will be a tight competition for the remaining 3 qualifiers for state. All of these teams have different strengths that equally could put them into qualifying position. For instance, Sacred Heart has a great 1-2 frontrunners while Sequoyah has the best depth among those nine.
Top 10 picks: 1. Farragut, 2. Ambassadors, 3. Sacred Heart, 4. Sequoyah, 5. Hardin Valley, 6. AL Lotts, 7. Cedar Bluff, 8. Sterchi, 9. CAK, 10. Northshore
All of these picks are just suggestions based on the regular season and they will be inevitably wrong once the dust settles and awards are handed out. However, this should give everyone attending a preview of what to expect and know who to look out for.
15 days to State!!!
