Performer Of The Week
Every week this season we will be conducting a poll from beginning Monday and ending Wednesday to highlight the performances from the previous week. This will give us an opportunity to showcase the best talent in Tennessee. Though some athletes will likely lay down marks every meet that are worthy of being in the poll every time, our goal is to cast a wide net and showcase a vast array of athletes from all parts of the state. Polls open Monday and close Wednesday at midnight.
Eli Penix - Daniel Boone
The defending Large Division I State Champion has been in consideration for this poll almost every week this season but I didn't want to nominate him until he posted marks that were pacing with his end of the season goals. Earlier this week at the Anna Cooper Memorial Last Chance, Eli Penix finally posted distances in both shot and disc that were more in line with the state records he's hoping to break.
His 180-8 is the #8 all time mark for the event in our database and his 65-4 is in shot is #3 all time. He'll need 191-02 and 67-01.25 to walk away as State Record holder next month.
Ethan Fulford - CAK
Ethan Fulford won three events at KIL sweeping the hurdle events (15.28 and 40.13) and winning the pole vault setting a personal best and tying a meet record at 14-6. His best last season was 12-6 and over his last three competitions he rewritten his personal record book three times over going 13, 14, and now 14-6.
Heading into state, he's the favorite in both hurdle events in DII Class A but while his best placement in the overall rankings in the pole vault where he sits #3, the state leader, Payton Culp, is still a foot better this season. Though it is the smallest classification, The DII Class A mutli's competition may be the states best this year between Fulford, Culp, and Frankfather.
Miles Ramer - Ravenwood
Since Miles Ramer's championship run in November, the junior from Ravenwood has been relatively quiet this season running no indoor and no debuting outdoor until April. He has pick and chose his spots only racing singular efforts since until this week where he won both the 1600m and 3200m at the Section 3 South Sub-Sectional in 4:21 and 9:30.
Miles Ramer won the Great Eight Invitational 1600m with a 4:18.65.
It'll be interesting to see how the chips fall around him and how everyone else declares. He's locked in to two events moving forward and that may serve him well if the likes of Chapman, Streeval, Wingfield, Keller, etc... run the 4x800 and he's fresh for when they step on the line again in the 1600m.
Dwayne Morris - Austin-East
Until last week, no runner in Division I Class AA had dipped under the two minute barrier this season. Dwayne Morris from Austin-East, ended that streak last week dipping just under the elusive mark with 1:59.33 at a meet at Webb. It was a personal best for the senior Roadrunner by over two seconds. This week at KIL, he really went under running a 1:57.05 en route to a runner up finish losing to only Keegan Smith.
Isaiah Olson - South Greene
After highlighting two runners in Class A sprints last week (Brown and Powell), Senior Isaiah Olson from South Greene had a "Well what about me?" night of performances at the Anna Cooper Memorial Meet on Tuesday with a double PR day in both the 100m and 200m races. His 10.94 catapulted him to #2 in the division rankings and his 22.37 put him at #3. Other than Brown, the only other runner ahead of him in the 200m dash is Jordan Harris of Alcoa who he'll meet in the East Regional so I would expect him to stay sharp when he arrives in Murfreesboro and improve on his 4th place finish from last season in the 100m Dash.
Olson won heat 1 of the 100m dash last season with 10.99. Last week was just his 2nd time under 11 since the state championship.