One could say that the Knoxville Ambassadors foam rolled their way to the Home school Cross Country National Championship at the Andrew Jackson Hermitage Estate.
"We really emphasize foam rolling and mobility training," said Ambassador coach Luke Thomas, who sends each of his runners a video on foam rolling. "It's really helped us cut down on injuries. We've had no IT band or other serious injuries in the last couple of years. Cutting down on injuries is a key to any team."
Thomas' team won the High School Girls Division and both Middle School crowns.
"I couldn't be prouder of how the kids did," Thomas said. "We've had a long year because we started practicing back in July and it ended today. We were tired but we still ran well."
The Ambassador coach said this meet meant a lot to all of the kids running.
"We don't have a state meet for home schoolers, so this was our state meet," he explained. "The kids were very excited about it."
Lydia Cooke finished a close second to pace the high school team with a time of 19:35. Bluegrass United's Ashlyn Liddle won the race in 19:33.
"It wasn't a flat and easy course," Thomas said. "It had some rolling hills in it so times weren't as fast as some places, but our kids competed. That's the main thing."
The meet only scored four runners from each team and only those teams with at least four runners counted in the results for team scoring.
The Ambassadors won with 25 points in the high school girls race. Hattiesburg was second with 34 points.
Other scoring for Knoxville and their times were Alyssa Rivera (21:15), Micah Roberts (21:35) and Emily Carlton (23:24).
The same scoring system was used in the middle school races, where Thomas' teams won with 10 points.
Savannah Rivera won the middle school girls race in 12:55 for two miles. Sadie Rivera clocked a 13:26, Chloe Swick a 13:31 and Esther McFall a 13:40 for the Ambassadors.
Sovereign Grace was second and Tennessee Heat was third in the girls middle school race.
Andrew Schultz claimed individual honors in 11:55 to lead the Knoxville boys. He was followed by Carter Rivera (12:11), Zimri Kuhn (12:31), and Jonathon Brackney (12:44).
West Academy was second in the boys middle school race.
Approximately 370 runners from 15 states participated in the first-year meet.