Memphis area Cross Country wrap-up
Earlier this week, the Region 7 large school division competed at the Crocket County high school course. The South Gibson boys were able to take the team win off the front runner Isaac Wehner. Isaac ran a 17:07.01 to win the individual title with Jonathan Escue, Mac Crenshaw, Justin Smith, and Joseph Chambliss rounding out the rest of the team who came in 9th, 11th, 14th, and 31st respectively. A bit of a spread in the 1-5 split but a not so nail biting 13 point win over Covington. Sixty six points to seventy nine points was a pretty good win for this team.
1 South Gibson County 66 1 9 11 14 31 39 45
Total Time: 1:32:38 Average: 18:31.45 1-5 Split: 2:48
2 Covington High Schoo 79 6 10 16 18 29 46 48
Total Time: 1:34:06 Average: 18:49.17 1-5 Split: 1:46
3 Dyersburg High Schoo 92 3 12 24 26 27 32 34
Total Time: 1:34:45 Average: 18:56.86 1-5 Split: 2:05
The girls Region 7 large had a pretty tight finish at the top, with only about 30 seconds separating the top spot to the number four spot. Dyer County's Senior, Kady Beth Leake, took the win in 20:18.52. That win helped her team get a total of 20 points! Anybody know what a perfect score is in Cross Country... well, of course you do... and that was only five away from that. Kady Beth's teammates were right near her the whole way. Isabella Tasolini was the second runner for the team in 20:51.74, followed by Lilly Torrence (21:16), then Madison Ray (21:25) and rounding out the top five for the team in 11th place overall was Bailey Chandler in 22:09.22. That's a pretty tightly packed team. Their 20 points was a strong finish for sure. South Gibson County took second with 57 points but had to really fight for it since Lexington High was third in 59 points. With about a twelve second average pace difference for the 5K distance, that was a tight race to get the runner up spot in this division.
1 Dyer Co. High School 20 1 2 4 5 8 17 31
Total Time: 1:46:02 Average: 21:12.22 1-5 Split: 1:51
2 South Gibson County 57 3 10 13 15 16 22 30
Total Time: 1:51:27 Average: 22:17.35 1-5 Split: 1:44
3 Lexington High Schoo 59 6 7 9 12 25 34 44
Total Time: 1:52:27 Average: 22:29.29 1-5 Split: 2:02
The Division 2 small schools held their Region meet at the University School of Jackson campus on Thursday afternoon this past week. Starting out with the boys, Shan Pokorny-Yadav of Lausanne ran win in 16:14. That time overtook his previous PR by forty seconds and certainly puts him on the radar to watch for the D2 small division on Saturday. That win helped Lausanne to a second place 59 point standing. But off the tight grouping of their top five athletes, with Thomas Mann (16:36) leading the way, St. George's tallied up 44 points with all five athletes in the top 15 spots and took the team title.
There was 44 points tallied in the girls side for second place as well, only it wasn't St. Georges, it was Evangelical Christian. Holly Huffman was ECS's top finisher in fourth overall with a 20:16.2 time. St. George's tally was a mere 24 points! With a win by Allison Newman in 18:53.6, second place overall by Maggie Wilson (18:54.3) and Sarah McDonald running 20:07 to get third overall pretty much secured that team title for these girls. It seems the last couple of years, the St. George's cross country program has slowly become a very strong and talented group of athletes. Very nice to see!
The D2 large schools also had a type of region meet, although they have all automatically qualified teams to state. Two of the top cross country athletes in the Memphis area showed why they're the best. Memphis University School's Hastings McEwan won in 16:21.38 just ahead of Christian Brothers Zach Hamack's 16:31.10. Something I say a lot with these two schools, it was a tight race for the team title this year with MUS getting 25 points and CBHS getting 30. With that said, I can't say both school's coaches aren't having a heart to heart with the team to step it up next week. It will be interesting to see which team guts it out and comes out as the top Memphis area D2 large at the Steeplechase course. It will be even more interesting to see how high up the podium both these schools will go with the talent across the state!
1 Memphis University S 25 1 3 6 7 8 18 25
Total Time: 1:24:30 Average: 16:53.98 1-5 Split: 54
2 Christian Brothers H 30 2 4 5 9 10 11 14
Total Time: 1:25:04 Average: 17:00.61 1-5 Split: 1:00
3 St. Benedict 87 12 15 19 20 21 22 23
Total Time: 1:36:39 Average: 19:19.61 1-5 Split: 2:28
4 Briarcrest 96 13 16 17 24 26 27 28
Total Time: 1:37:12 Average: 19:26.32 1-5 Split: 3:07
On the Girls side of the D2 large, it seems the St. Agnes team always figures out a way to come together this time of year. They did it again this year with a somewhat comfortable, yet close, team title with 35 points to Briarcrest's second place score of 42 points. Rebecca Calderoni led the St. Agnes team with her second place finish in 21:13.95. Meghan Underwood of Briarcrest, testing herself with a 5:35 first mile and an 11:45 second mile let her take is easy on the last mile so she could get the win in 19:17.46. Seems since transferring to Briarcrest, this talented athlete has blossomed into a force on the grass and the track. Next Saturday's D2 races should be fun ones to watch this year!
1 St. Agnes 35 2 3 8 10 12 20 -
Total Time: 1:50:02 Average: 22:00.38 1-5 Split: 1:27
2 Briarcrest 42 1 5 6 13 17 22 29
Total Time: 1:48:33 Average: 21:42.42 1-5 Split: 3:45
3 Hutchinson 75 4 9 11 25 26 30 -
Total Time: 1:58:34 Average: 23:42.68 1-5 Split: 4:27
4 St. Marys 89 15 16 18 19 21 23 24
Total Time: 1:56:00 Average: 23:11.88 1-5 Split: 32
5 St. Benedict 107 7 14 27 28 31 32 33
Total Time: 2:04:44 Average: 24:56.75 1-5 Split: 5:03
The same day, the Region 8 small schools held their meet at the Ed Rice Community center park in Memphis. The girls here had a very close race for the individual title with a couple of Madison Academic athletes and a Mitchel sophomore battling it out on the course with Middle College. Eric Rodgers of Middle College took the top spot in 22:07. Tashon Bryson (Mitchell) was the top finisher for Mitchell in 22:09 with the next three spots taken by Madison athletes Wells Johnstone (22:25) and Mariah Lien (22:48). Fourth overall at the meet was Serenity Williams, another Madison athlete and a newcomer to cross country as a freshman. And yes, you guessed it, with 3 athletes in the top four, Madison Academic Magnet took the title with 43 points ahead of Memphis Middle College at 61 points.
1 Madison Academic Mag 47 3 4 5 8 27 29 32
Total Time: 2:03:44 Average: 24:44.80 1-5 Split: 7:50
2 Memphis Middle Colle 49 1 6 9 16 17 20 28
Total Time: 2:04:45 Average: 24:57.00 1-5 Split: 4:43
3 Mitchell High School 71 2 7 14 18 30 33 -
Total Time: 2:14:43 Average: 26:56.60 1-5 Split: 12:55
The boys Region 8 small had a similar outcome for the team, with Madison Academic making it a team sweep with their 49 points to second team spot of MLK College Prep with 64 points. Watching this race you might not have thought Madison would have taken the top spot with their first finisher, Xavier Hawkins (19:16), coming in at tenth place overall. But having a team grouping very close together with a 1-5 split of only 19 seconds, well, that shows how strong a team that works together can be. Nicely done guys!
1 Madison Academic Mag 49 7 8 10 11 13 25 -
Total Time: 1:36:55 Average: 19:23.00 1-5 Split: 19
2 MLK College Preparat 64 3 5 15 19 22 27 33
Total Time: 1:39:28 Average: 19:53.60 1-5 Split: 2:01
3 City University Scho 68 2 12 16 17 21 23 34
Total Time: 1:39:59 Average: 19:59.80 1-5 Split: 1:58
The last group, the Region 8 large schools, found themselves racing on Friday late afternoon. Although Friday night lights are usually reserved for that other sport, um.. which one is that... hmm... well, you know the one with benches and breaks every few seconds and I think they all wear helmets... Anyways, after battling the warm and dry weather for most of the cross country season thus far, the Region 8 meet came up against a very different day. Yep, not worrying about heat or staying hydrated with the blistering sun, the boys in girls in Region 8 had to deal with a torrential downpour, high winds, a huge and fast cold front coming through the area. With pouring rain, wind and maybe a temperature no more than 45 degrees, the Region 8 meet started. Yea.. you got it... cross country weather the way it was meant to be!
The girls were the first to brave the weather and they took off strong at that. After the first meet of the season, where the Houston girls lost their top athlete (Baran) with a broken leg, you'd think it would be tough to be a strong contender. But not so. All seven of these girls came in under the top 20 finishers in a really competitive race. They counted up 34 points (top 5) with Lydia Tankersley getting the overall runner up spot in 19:27.84, Felicity Bost fourth in 19:36.64, Anna Tankersley in 20:30, Madeline Harreld at 20:32 and Annabel Leonard rounding out the fifth spot in 11th overall at 20.36.05. Not a bad grouping for sure. Winning, and leading her team to a second place finish in 46 points, was Skylar Boogerd of Arlington with a time way out in front at 18:51.30. Guess Skylar was cold and just wanted to get done and get warm!! Collierville pulled in the third team to get them qualified for state off their lead runner and third place finisher, Gabrielle Sawyer (19:33.98).
1 Houston High School 34 2 4 7 10 11 13 19
Total Time: 1:40:33.18
Average: 20:06.64
2 Arlington High School 46 1 5 8 15 17 23 29
Total Time: 1:42:37.50
Average: 20:31.50
3 Collierville High School 69 3 12 16 18 20 24 26
Total Time: 1:45:54.48
Average: 21:10.90
The boys followed and with these schools, you know you're about to watch some really good racing. With Collierville starting out with two of their guys crossing the line 1st and 2nd, it seemed they may have been wanting the team title more than anyone else. Coming into this race, the odds were that Bartlett was the favorite with Collierville coming in behind them and a toss up with Houston and Arlington for that last spot to state. It ended up a very close finish with Bartlett winning by five points (38 to 43) over Collierville. Jaren Briant (16:40) and Garrett Meier (16:41) of Collierville were those top two finishers. Houston's Bradley Turner drove in third (16:47) and then 3 of the Bartlett guys crossed closely together. Travis Jones (16:54), Avery Wood (16:58) and Brendan Hill (17:05) started out a roll for the Bartlett team to get the title.
1 Bartlett High School 38 4 5 6 11 12 27
Total Time: 1:25:27.93
Average: 17:05.59
2 Collierville High School 43 1 2 10 13 17 20 21
Total Time: 1:25:36.38
Average: 17:07.28
3 Houston High School 66 3 8 14 19 22 23 36
Total Time: 1:27:12.98
Average: 17:26.60
On a late afternoon that was really brutal, the last races in the Memphis area ended. Both a battle with the weather and a battle of some of the best athletes in the area, made for a great cross country race for sure! Now...it's on to Nashville.
See you at the Steeplechase course next Saturday!!
Coach Ted
