This meet was prefaced with what appeared to foresee a lot of fast times and incredible finishes and it lived up that and more at Victor Ashe Park in Knoxville October 19th. With Tennessee making their way for the upset over South Carolina 5 miles away, athletes were hoping to duplicate an upset and cement their name as State Champion. With 1200 athletes from over 100 middle school and 50 elementary teams, this was another increase in depth and talent at the state level. 5 races, 4 varsity and one JV, 3 course records, 2 first ever elementary champions and 1 incredible photo finish that people will take years to forget.
Elementary School Girls Race
Hope Ilias (Unattached) and Macy Caldwell (Campbell Co) came into the meet as the clear favorites and separated themselves early on to vie for the title. Making the turn at the bottom there was not much between them but coming back uphill to the finish Ilias broke it open and left little doubt winning in a new course record of 5:51. Caldwell followed in second running a PR of 5:59 with Felicity Bost (Unattached) bringing in the 3rd place position in great mark of 6:05. Knoxville Ambassadors used a 34 second 1-5 spread to run away with the title followed closely by Sacred Heart (51 points) and Sequoyah (54 points).
Elementary School Boys Race
The boys race was an all-out affair from the gun with one of the fastest starts that officials had ever seen. Jackson Dempster (Knoxville Ambassadors), Riley Faulkner (Campbell Co) and Jeremiah Shelton (West End) along with Lucas Odle (Memphis Jaguars) set out right away and made it a four man race. However, Dempster set out to repeat his course record effort at the area championship a week ago and found a way to drop that record down another 10 seconds to 5:25 opening a gap back to Faulkner (5:35), Shelton (5:48) and Odle (5:50) who finished 2-3-4. Knoxville Ambassadors came in one of the favorites but led by champion Dempster won by a solid margin over Cedar Bluff 45-59 making the first two ever champions in the Elementary State meet also the same team.
Middle School Girls Race
Taylor Cuneo (Oakland) came in the state meet with a runner-up finish as a sixth grader, a championship title and course record as a seventh grader but did not expect to just run away from her competition in her final middle school year. That respect for her competition paid off as Laurel Wynn of Dresden literally took it to the line with Cuneo winning by a hair with both running 12:24. Cuneo’s record time from last year will remain at 12:19 but with Wynn returning next year as the top returner followed closely by 6th grader and third place finisher Sasha Neglia (John Sevier) running 12:30, next year’s race is already shaping up to be an exciting one. Webb came in as the team favorites to defend their 2012 title and held true to form led by 7th graders Niki Narayani (5th) and Addison Smith (6th). St. Agnes used a 27 second team spread to finish 2nd also taking home the best uniform award (unofficially).
Middle School Boys Race
Three of the top returners came back looking to improve on their 2012 finishes and were led by Titus Winders (Henry Co) setting a new course record in 11:10. He was followed closely by Davis Holliday (Williamson) and Carter Coughlin (Webb). Travis Teurff (St. Matthew) and Jordan Van Druff (Oak Ridge) closed out the top five as Van Druff’s course record lasted for less than two weeks but acts as the top returner for 2014. Central Magnet came in as a region champion and naturally one of the favorites but it took a great team effort to put them over the top and be the first time not named Webb to win since 2008. Graduating 6 out of the top 7 most teams would have trouble expecting to repeat but winning the JV race with 23 points they will be up and ready for their first title defense next year.
This year will go down as one that showed why Tennessee is moving up nationally in the high school ranks as a state. With these nationally ranked individuals and teams the question is always asked, “How did you get your start?” The answer for an increasing amount of those top athletes is middle school. In about 2-3 years, that answer will change to elementary school and then watch out for the state of Tennessee!