One True Champion?
Prior to becoming the editor earlier this year, I was just a freelance contributor to the website and if you kept up with my writing, I've very much been in favor of MORE classes and not less. "If Division I Football has 6 why does track only have 2?" and "Why is a school of 700 competing against Bartlett High School who has 2700?" Those sorts of things. After Tuesday night, I'm starting to waver on that platform.
The Great Eight Invitational is a small-scale example of how a theoretical single class state meet that features the best athletes regardless of classification or division can be an incredible event with success at all levels. After the dust settled at Harpeth Hall, every class and division took home victories.
Small Division-I saw Pearl-Cohn light the track on fire. Division II Class A had individual event victories in the Boys 1600m (Connor Henson) and Girls 800m (Aubrey Lane). Ensworth and Brentwood led the way in the largest divisions with multiple victories in multiple events as well.
Leigh Walters (Division I) narrowly edged Bella Guillamondegui (Division II) in the 1600m run at Great Eight Invitational
A couple of years ago we tried to have an invitational style "Meet of Champions" a week or two after the TSSAA State Meet but after 3 months of meets, graduations over, and without school in session to keep athletes in a routine the entries for the event were limited.
The Great Eight Invitational has the notoriety and organization but it's history of being the premiere Middle Tennessee exclusive meet a few weeks before qualifying will be hard to break away from and in order to expand the geography of the meet you would also need to move it to a Saturday. After Tuesday, I think there is an appetite for an "All-State Invitational" but it can't be after the current state meet.