Instagram Predictions
On July 13th, we posted a story on our Instagram page that simply asked followers "What is your prediction for the 2022 Cross County season?" As of July 14th, we received over 70 responses with more coming in. From now until the first gun fires, we'll analyze some of those predictions to help us prepare for the upcoming 2022 season. The following is one that was submitted by followers.
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Prediction: Miles Ramer Will Go Back To Back
"Miles Ramer is a back to back state champion"
"Miles Ramer dominates again"
"Miles Ramer State Champ!!"
This was one of the more popular submissions by followers and it's easy to see why. At the outset of last season, Miles Ramer was somewhat of a non-factor when it came to who we were targeting as contenders in the preseason. As a freshman, he never even broke 17:00 and placed outside of the Top 100 at state. In just one year though, he's gone from freshman to favorite according to these submissions. Here are the Top 10 returning runners from Division I AAA from the state meet last season:
| Place | Runner | School | Time |
| 1st | Miles Ramer | Ravenwood | 15:10 |
| 4th | Hays Adams | Houston | 15:35 |
| 5th | Brody Chapman | Brentwood | 15:44 |
| 7th | Trevor Coggin | Farragut | 15:49 |
| 8th | Callahan Fielder | Brentwood | 15:51 |
| 11th | Parker Harris | Franklin | 15:57 |
| 12th | David Brown | Franklin | 16:01 |
| 13th | Cade Crum | Bearden | 16:04 |
| 19th | Manuel Cruz | Oak Ridge | 16:17 |
| 20th | Braden Ebbert | Farragut | 16:18 |
Miles Ramer did not take the lead until after the two mile mark at Sanders Ferry but was able to gap the second place finisher by nine seconds.
Analysis
Coming into the state meet, Ramer had run on fast courses. He went to Chickasaw. He went to Southern Showcase. He came into state ranked 7th and having already hit his season goal of running under 15:30, all he wanted to do was "race smart." Well he did that and more running his personal best at the most important time. Over seven races in 2021 he never ran over 15:58. He had a somewhat abbreviated track season debuting late but ultimately rounded into form an finishing runner up in the 1600m to outgoing senior Levi Streeval of Daniel Boone and finished 6th at the Festival of Miles with a 4:13.55 which ended the season as the fastest time of all returners in Division I. All this is to establish, yes, he is going to be very tough to beat this season.
That said, a lot can change in a year and just like him, any runner can have a sizeable jump year over year in the same way he did. Two of the runners above, Hays Adams and Callahan Fielder, beat Ramer at some point last season. We haven't seen Hays since that race as he focuses on soccer outside of cross season but as his coach noted "he's always read to go." We'll know how ready when he likely debuts at Memphis Twilight. We'll also be able to see most of them race Miles multiple times again assuming their schedules are similar to lasts. Brody Chapman, Callahan Fielder, Parker Harris, and David Brown should be on the same start line as Ramer on September 10th at Voyles Classic and will likely be at events with Ravenwood up to 3 more times prior to state. If Houston and Ravenwood both go to Southern Showcase again, Adams and Ramer could meet again as they did in 2021. He'll likely have little to no crossover with the East Tennessee teams unless Farragut travels south as well which they did not until Garmin RunningLane last season.
The larger question beyond Division I AAA is can Ramer be the best runner in the state regardless of classification? We'll have more on that based on another Instagram Prediction later.