Victor Ashe Park Classic
Jones, Jaber get wins
Andie-Marie Jones notched her second victory of the season on Saturday with a significant gap between herself and second place. This seems to be the trend any time she competes at Victor Ashe Park and I'm unsure if it factors in to how much she pushes herself over the course of the race.
| Year | Jones' Time | 2nd Place |
| 2018 | 19:06 | 19:21 |
| 2019 | 18:38 | 19:47 |
| 2020 | 18:14 | 19:43 |
| 2021 | 18:44 | 19:20 |
It's hard to tell in her interview if she's disappointed with her performance considering it wasn't a personal best on the course but one thing she mentioned here stood out to me.
"I want to be top 3 composite at the end of the season."
In other words, behind Jenna Hutchins and I assume might be Abby Faith Cheeseman, she wants to have the next best time at the state course come November. That is a bold statement but entirely possible considering how she finished at RunningLane.
In Abdul Jaber's interview leading up to this meet, the Alcoa senior was hoping to simply break up Hardin Valley from getting a perfect score.
Well he did that and on top of getting the win, he also lowered his PR slightly
by 2 seconds on a course that isn't notorious for fast times. Though Jaber is
listed as a senior, he is still a "young runner." He mentioned in the interview
that when he got to Alcoa as a freshman he didn't know what cross country was. He
started running track that spring and first competed in cross country as a
sophomore. I don't know what his ceiling is, but to this point, his trajectory of
growth over less than three seasons is impressive.
As we look ahead, the AA/A boy's field appears to be the most competitive and intriguing across all classifications. The former small division was already returning eight out of the top nine finishers prior to raising the cut line and now you add in Jackson Martin and Tucker Allen to that grouping?! It's a must see race even if your school isn't competing.
Event 4 Boys 5k Run CC D1 Small
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Name Year School Finals Points Alternate
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1 #417 Douglas, Will 10 Camden Central 16:01.78 1
2 #505 Kennedy, Grayson 11 Sequatchie County 16:21.97 2
3 #512 Pote, Joshua 09 Signal Mountain 16:31.64 3
4 #439 Medina, Irving 12 Chuckey-Doak 16:35.86
5 #502 Bradford, Carter 11 Sequatchie County 16:37.44 4
6 #405 Jaber, Abdul 11 Alcoa 16:38.22 5
7 #444 Andrea, Matthew 11 Fairview 16:47.35 6
8 #479 Breitling, Parker 09 Merrol Hyde Magnet 16:48.91 7
9 #459 Fulton, Sam 11 Gatlinburg-Pittman 16:55.01 8
Last season's Small Division I top nine finishers.
Jaber
will have an opportunity next week to measure his ability against one of those
runners as Joshua Pote will also be lining up at Cherokee next weekend.