Voyles Classic
In some of my off camera
conversations with Nolensville's Searcy Mooney for the preview of this meet,
she casually mentioned "We have a freshman who is pretty good that might
surprise you." How good didn't quite register until the Knight's Claire Stegall
was coming down the finish line in first place with a full head of steam on her
way to an 18:08 in her first cross country 5k ever. When I saw the teams
attending, I fully expected this to be another freshman, Abby Faith Cheeseman
crossing in first but she won't be opening her season until next week, which as
I'm finding out, most runners with post season aspirations delay the start of
their competitive season. In her absence, it allowed a spotlight to shine on a
new face in Tennessee high school cross country.
In 8th grade, Claire placed first in the WMAA Championship in the 1600m with a time of 5:13.
While Cheesman and Stegall
did not race on Saturday, if they are seeded in the same division at Jesse
Owens it may give us our only opportunity this season to see them on the same
course together.
Stegall wasn't the only freshman that caught my attention yesterday. Two more also finished in the top five and they were from the same school, Brentwood, the defending champions. Now, in my mind, did I bury Brentwood's chances of going back to back considering they graduated four (3 scoring) from last season's squad and Farragut, who placed runner up, graduated 0 from their top five? Hand Up... I might have. Am I starting to reconsider? Absolutely. This is exactly the type of incoming freshman class the Bruins needed. The Bruins went 3-4-5 overall led by Lydia Cromwell (9th), Brooke Tyll (11th), and Rachel Haws (9th).
Lydia Cromwell had a 12:07 Cross Country PR over two miles in Middle School.
As for the boys and my
observations from this meet, those will be embedded into a rankings article
later this week. Stay tuned.