By Graduating Class
With the emergence of Keegan Smith and Abby Faith Cheeseman this year this one was a necessary comparison to make.
Boys
Freshmen | Rank | Sophomore | Rank |
Keegan Smith | 3 | Miles Ramer | 1 |
Callahan Fielder | 12 | Hays Adams | 5 |
Cade Crum | 23 | Luke Thompson | 15 |
Jack Bowen | 29 | Parker Harris | 18 |
Tony Ortega | 90 | Evan Simpson | 19 |
Total | 157 | 58 |
Juniors | Rank | Seniors | Rank |
Jackson Martin | 7 | Landen McNair | 2 |
Brody Chapman | 8 | Kaden Keller | 4 |
Will Douglas | 10 | Connor Henson | 6 |
Trevor Coggin | 11 | Brennan Thomas | 9 |
David Brown | 21 | Caleb Jarrett | 13 |
Total | 57 | 34 |
Junior class better watch out for those sophomore boys! None of this really surprises me though. This is what we can expect from boys and their development and I tried to preface this in one of the previews with how rare it is that a freshman boy can crack into the top ten at state in any division and this compilation helps demonstrate that. While there are outlier freshmen in the top 30, the majority are outside the top 100.
What did stand out as I was creating this table is how many teammates there were in the Top 5:
Team | Runners |
Knox Catholic | Keegan Smith, Tony Ortega |
McCallie | Jack Bowen, Evan Simpson |
Brentwood | Callahan Fielder, Brody Chapman |
Franklin | Parker Harris, David Brown |
Siegel | Brennan Thomas, Caleb Jarrett |
Literally half the list comes from five teams. If we're looking ahead to next season, which it's way too early to do, with HVA graduating essentially their entire team, Brentwood and Franklin have at least the top tier runners returning which are harder to come by through training than role players to fill out 3-7.
Keegan Smith still ranks #1 overall in the state with his 14:53 at Southern Showcase where he bettered both Ramer and McNair. Will be interesting to see if he can have a repeat performance while on the same course with those opponents in December.