Division I Class AA/A Girls
Partial drone coverage courtesy of Siegel Aviation.
Arrington Overcomes
The success rate between someone having a feature interview with MileSplit Tennessee and them going on to having a successful season is not great. As was the case with Zoe Arrington. Prior to the 2021 cross county season, we featured the upcoming junior as she was the favorite coming into the revamped Class AA/A. At the time she was the reigning champion for the Large Division I for the 3200m and Runner Up in the 1600m and looked in position to run away with the title also cross country. The subsequent seasons did not live up to the expectations laid out in that interview due to a bad case of COVID in the middle of that fall season followed but multiple injuries thereafter. She came into Thursday ranked 5th on paper, ran behind the leaders for a little over a mile before pressing through the quiet corner and no one responded. She eventually gapped the field 14 seconds crossing the finish in 19:08 which was her fastest time of the season. She was the only senior to finish in the top ten.
Behind Arrington were Maxine Richards (19:22), Sophia Boutros (19:30), Abi Cobb (19:30), and Gabrielle Boutros (19:51). They were the only runners to finish under twenty.
Signal Mountain Reclaims Title
Coming into this meet, I felt confident Signal Mountain would win but I did not feel like they were the near 100 point favorite as they were projected. When I saw them at FrontRunners the week prior to regionals, one of their runners I recognized from last season was in a walking boot and Kelsey Thompson who won regionals the previous year was heavily taped and finished mid-pack. That said, they were still able to flip the script on Central Magnet in the end as the Tigers could not match the top end of the Eagles as they could last season. Signal put three runners (Maxine Richards, Ada Boyd, and Aubrey Lynch) ahead of CMS's first en route to a 64 to 100 point victory.
Signal will return their entire varsity roster heading into next season while CMS will graduate their top four runners. If this rivalry is headed for a hiatus as the Tigers are due to rebuild, the third place team East Hamilton will return their entire roster as well. The Hurricanes finished 11th at this meet last year with essentially a roster full of freshman. This year, they returned as sophomores, improved their team average by over a minute, and finished eight spots higher as a team. They will definitely be one to watch develop heading into next season as all seven are set to return.