Farragut Invitational
Christian Langlois
Sometimes guys hit our radar as seniors because they're "football specialists" for their first four years of high school and now that they don't have spring football they give track a go before they graduate. That's not the case in Christian Langlois' situation. The Bearden senior ran as a freshman, was injured as a sophomore, and well... we all know what happened last year but now he's healthy, hungry, and hawking down the competition in impressive fashion.
While this position doesn't require me to physically report from every part of the country I'm glad I've made that a priority because just seeing times in results doesn't do justice for how impressive athletes like Langlois are. He's incredibly smooth, mechanically sound, but ultimately raw. When he says 10.7 and 21.X I believe him and would be surprised if he doesn't hit those times before this season ends. If I were a college recruiter, I would be doing whatever I could to get him in my program as I think his ceiling is higher than more polished athletes in his bracket of times.
Hardin Valley Girls
While it may seem as though my coverage seems bias towards Hardin Valley, it's not. They're just very good. I probably passed up interviewing 2 or 3 other athletes that won events on Saturday for the Hawks while trying to spread out the airtime. But while I say they're very good... may only be that... very good. It's entirely possible they don't win a single event at the state meet but could come away with a state title by 3rd, 4th, and 5th placing the rest of the state to death. The pace of Saturday, while slower than the state meet will be, prepares a team like that for the schedule and volume of racing they'll encounter in Murfreesboro.
Sidnee Stanton and Brooke Taylor swapped victories in the horizontal jumps on Saturday. If one has a bad jump, the other one will. It's a good problem to have for the Hardin Valley Hawks.