Page Up, Station Camp Down
Last year, the Page High School girls placed 4th in Division I Class AA/A while the Station Camp boys placed fifth in Division I Class AAA. After reclassification, the teams essentially switched places. Page moves up to Class AAA into Region 6 with fellow Williamson County foes like Brentwood, Nolensville, Ravenwood, etc... and Station Camp moves down to Class AA/A to join neighboring new campus Liberty Creek along with MLK in Region 5. It goes without saying that getting reclassified down is a bigger advantage than reclassifying up but after Saturday Light Fever, it appears as though both schools are on track to find success in their new league.
Seeing Double
Gabrielle Boutros and Sophia Boutros (Left photos) are no strangers to running scene in Middle Tennessee. The twins have earned All State Honors in Cross Country and Track both their freshman and sophomore seasons. Now entering their junior year they are joined by another set of twin sisters; Nigella Smith and Natalie Smith. This weekend, the Boutros sisters led the way for the Patriots with Gabrielle finishing 13th in 19:10 and Sophia 21st in 20:03 and were quickly joined by Nigella and Natalie who placed 23rd and 27th crossing in 20:05 and 20:10 respectively. Page placed 3rd behind only Brentwood and Harpeth Hall upsetting many preseason top ten teams in the field. This puts them in great position to qualify as a team out of Region 6 and if one of the remaining runners on their roster can close the gap, Page may be looking at team hardware this year or next. The Page boys finished 7th behind Brentwood but ahead of Ravenwood and Nolensville. The path is likely harder for the boys to get top three in the region with Independence and Franklin who will be strong as well.
Bison Title Contenders?
In Class AA/A, the road to a title runs through Signal Mountain and Central Magnet. The Station Camp boys placed 5th last year in Class AAA but graduated four of their top seven runners. On Saturday, they placed 9th in the gold division scoring 221 which was just one point behind Central Magnet who scored 220. Junior Justus Murray (Above) placed 13th overall with 16:30. The only other runner ahead of him from Class AA/A was Ty Brown of Central Magnet who we profiled earlier this week. Assuming these are two of the top three or four teams on the boys side, they're very evenly matched adding to the trend of close competitions in this classification where counting points accurately as runners finish in November has become nearly impossible.
On the girls side, the Bison are a contender. Though Central Magnet, last year's team runner up, and Station Camp ran in separate divisions on Saturday, Station Camp's 4th runner was ahead of the Tiger's first runner with the Bison posting a 20:27 average compared to Central's 22:43. As for how they compare to Signal, who has yet to run a 5k, here's how Station Camp compares to the Eagles performance last November.
SCHS at SLF | SMHS at State |
| 18:52 | 19:22 |
| 19:55 | 20:00 |
| 20:52 | 20:19 |
| 21:00 | 20:51 |
| 21:34 | 21:49 |
The teams are very evenly matched but scale still tilts in Signal Mountains favor. That said, Brynn Balturshot's 18:52 would've won this division by 16 seconds last year with only one of the top five from last year's race, Maxine Richards of Signal, returning. These two teams, with the addition of David Crockett who reclassified down as well, will all be in contention come November.