Head to Head Breakdown
For this breakdown I'm going to stack up the returners for the top two preseason teams from each division, rank them, and score them using their 2021 TSSAA State Championship times. Considering these teams ran on the same day on the same course these are the fairest set of results to use.
| Rank | Runner | Team | Time |
| 1 | Brody Chapman | Brentwood | 15:44 |
| 2 | Trevor Coggin | Farragut | 15:49 |
| 3 | Callahan Fielder | Brentwood | 15:51 |
| 4 | Luke Thompson | BA | 15:53 |
| 5 | Evan Simpson | McCallie | 15:59 |
| 6 | Carter Johnson | BA | 16:05 |
| 7 | Jack Bowen | McCallie | 16:07 |
| 8 | Hugh Carlson | McCallie | 16:12 |
| 9 | Sean Smith | BA | 16:15 |
| 10 | Braden Ebbert | Farragut | 16:18 |
| 11 | Grady Outlaw | McCallie | 16:26 |
| 12 | Riley Hanson | Farragut | 16:26 |
| 13 | Nate Armstong | McCallie | 16:37 |
| 14 | Robert Pautienus | Brentwood | 16:38 |
| 15 | Connor Vanderkolk | Brentwood | 16:39 |
| 16 | Harrison Cunningham | Farragut | 16:47 |
| 17 | Sam Widmaier | BA | 16:51 |
| 18 | Quinn Deguira | Farragut | 17:05 |
| 19 | Phillip Hyams | Brentwood | 17:15 |
| 20 | Harrison Chapman | BA | 17:24 |
| 21 | Parker Wells | BA | 17:27 |
| 22 | Landon Parker | Brentwood | 17:39 |
| 23 | John Gabbert | McCallie | 17:52 |
Team Scores
School | Score | Average | Split 1-5 |
| McCallie | 44 | 16:16 | 0:37 |
| Brentwood | 52 | 16:25 | 1:31 |
| BA | 56 | 16:30 | 1:31 |
| Farragut | 58 | 16:29 | 1:16 |
McCallie won their second title in as many years with a 54-69 victory over Brentwood Academy in 2021.
Analysis
While Brentwood, Brentwood Academy, and Farragut all come into the 2022 season with the same profile on paper, McCallie's distinct strength is their depth. They have a balanced attack much like we saw from Hardin Valley for the last two seasons. They will have runners contending for single digit scoring while still bringing in their 5th ahead of everyone else's 3rd and 4th scoring runners. Couple this with a state championship middle school program, back filling those six and seven positions with even stronger runners will not be an issue for the Tornadoes this season. Brentwood Academy still has the ability to give them a hard time in a smaller more focused race however. Their top three runners are dead even with McCallie's and they are coming into this season with a lot of confidence and belief they are the best team in D-II AA (just read the rest of the submissions to the Instagram post). They'll be adding a 4:38 Miler (from middle school) to the roster to help close the gap of that spread as well. Brentwood will also have an incoming runner to help their cause as well. Kehler Vaughn placed runner up in both the TMSAA and KYA Middle School State Championship Meets and will likely compete for scoring position on varsity to help bring down their spread. Farragut had the runner up team to McCallie at state but their top two scoring runners were 7th graders last year.
McCallie has their work cut out for them to definitively become the best team this season but the ingredients are there for it to occur. They're also there for a couple other top contenders as well. Hopefully we get some crossover between these before the season is over. We'll be sure bring you coverage when it happens.
