2021 TSSAA State XC Meet Recap: Division I Class AAA Girls

TSSAA State Championship
Ben Thompson

The Team Race

In the preview for the meet I did an exercise where I applied a 30 second handicap to Brentwood and recounted the standing and it still had Brentwood winning by 18 points over Farragut. What that didn't account for is what happens if their number 2/3 runner Peyton Strauss, who started but didn't finish Brentwood's final two races leading up to state, DNFs again? This was my concern going in and likely a concern for most in the Bruin camp.

As the race started, it was evident Farragut wanted to get out fast. I'm pretty sure they were winning after the first mile.

Unfortunately for the Admirals, the only runner that ended up holding onto or improving their place from that tweet was Senior Grace Lathrop. Lathrop finished first last year for the Admirals and the more I looked into her profile I found out that last season was her first season in Tennessee. She, like Molly Roush at Lipscomb and others I discovered during track season, is a transplant from California. Going into the race she was ranked 20th overall with a 19:00 but the potential for mid-18s has been there since her sophomore year where she ran 18:32. Though her 18:34 was not a PR, it was a school record.

If Farragut were to come out on top, they would've needed improvement across the board but only one other runner, Melanie Hayman, did.  

As for the Bruins, Strauss ended up finishing 13th overall and 3rd for the team which helped Brentwood amass a total of 75 points to Farragut's 96. Lydia Cromwell led the Bruins with a 6th place finish, Brooke Tyll one place ahead of Strauss, and Rachel Haws and Lola Baker rounded the scoring five. 


Independence placed 3rd for the second year in a row with all three Halterman sisters scoring in their top five and Beech placed 4th with three freshmen and two sophomores in their top five. Sumner county will be opening a new cluster of schools next year which may or may not affect this nucleus of young runners but behind Brentwood, the Buccaneers look to have the infrastructure to fill the void Farragut may leave with five graduating.