Boys Recap
Brady Masters, another top athlete from Madison Central out of Richmond Kentucky was able to significantly improve his position and time from the last time he ran the Twilight. In 2019, Brady was 9th overall in 16:12.51. This year, 15:29.09 was his time but more impressive, he won the overall title Saturday night! Brady pretty much went wire to wire in this race as he took charge by the first mile and kept just enough distance to finish off the race! So far, this athlete has not lost a cross country race this season. He's 3-0 on Saturday's this year.
Columbia Academy's Connor Henson just came up short on catching Brady but what he did do is set a strong PR Saturday with the runner up finish. Connor's 15:39.11 is a heck of a strong way to start off his season. Considering the PR's he set on the track last season (1:55.39 in the 800, 4:16.76 for the 1600), this Bulldog is definitely on course to make his senior season one outstanding finish!
The top local finisher, and number three overall at this race is Bartlett's senior Landen McNair. In 2019, Landen ran to a 16th spot in 16:40 but this year he has come out in a blaze. Running 15:47.22 this Saturday starts him off on a strong note. Couple that with his 800 State win in 1:53 last track season, it does appear Landen wants to set some good marks his senior season.
Less than a couple seconds behind Landen was Houston's Hays Adams running a PR of 15:49.87. This youngster is already starting out the season so much faster than his best of last season, you can only wonder how much better he can get. Last cross-country season, Hays ran consistently with about an 18 second spread between his worse and best performances last cross-country season. If that consistency holds, using his time Saturday would put him in a top 5 spot at the State meet. That's speculation of course, but hey, I'll be watching how that trend holds up this season.
Coming into the Twilight this year, I was having some real questions about who in this area would have the best boy's team overall. Was it going to be Bartlett or Houston? Or was another school going to slip in there. It was hard to tell since we did have a season last year, but I wouldn't call it one of the most robust of seasons by any means. If Saturday is any indication, Bartlett and Houston are going to duke it out for the top spot again. Houston took this meet and I think it might be difficult to shake them this season. Houston had a 1:30 split for their top 5 guys and a 16:44 average time. That was a bit better than the Bartlett squad. I think this is really going to come down to, as it almost always does, to the 4th and 5th place finishers on the team. Those guys bump up some in the rankings and we start getting much different results.
Houston's team Saturday consisted of Hays (as you know), Robert Randall (16:39), Samuel Tankersley (16:55), Luke Carpenter (16:55.85), and Trevor Hodgson (17:20). Their 6th man was William Lloyd who ran a 17:23.68 which is not that far away from 5th spot. That depth is likely going to carry them well into the post season this year.
The 2021 Memphis Twilight was able to notch another successful meet this year. The coach's ospitality room was a bit quieter than past years. Still a lot of tents set up all around the area just maybe spread out a bit more this year. Still had music playing. A lot less humidity. And again, this year, nobody crashed on that harrowing downhill first turn. Bill Hoffman and Christian Brothers University, all the volunteers, and Jim Kaiser again did a wonderful job of putting this meet and getting all the athletes a venue that is something to look forward to each season. Great job everyone... athletes and all!!
See you on the track... and the grass!
Coach Ted