Siegel Invitational
After traveling east and west the last two weekends I was on the fence about spending another weekend at a track meet but I decided to go to the Siegel Invitational for about half the day. It's as far south as I'm probably going to make it this season. What I realized, and probably should've realized during cross country season, is that sometimes we get caught up too much in times and rankings. While getting ready to watch the final heat of the 100m girls race, I checked the rankings and was expecting to either see Nolensville's Anaiya Midget or Ravenwood's Alyssa Arkava cross the finish line first but as the race progressed a girl from Franklin County passed my vantage point 60 meters into the race first and never let the lead go. Kahlynia Vanzant is a sophomore and if she keeps putting up times like this she's going to need to become more talkative in interviews because I'm probably going to be talking to her a lot more.
When it comes to the longer races, Jordan Rayl of Ravenwood became yet another contender in a loaded field of distance runners in Section 3. The sophomores smashed her previous personal record in the event with a 5:09 on Saturday which means after this weekend Section 3 will hold four of the top 8 spots at the distance.
On the boy's side, the standout athlete of the day was John Overton's Eric Foley. The Bethel commit won the 100m, 200m, and the Long Jump but while those victories are nice, like the girls distance races in section 3, he's still just a borderline qualifier in all 3 events. That said, from what I saw on Saturday was discipline and confidence and in qualifying races that demeanor may make the difference.