2023 Moments Of The Year
You Could See This Coming
As with the records we touched on yesterday, the longest standing girls state relay record was on the plus side of forty years old as well. Farragut set the record in 1979 at 9:12 and in the four decades since, the next fastest time came in 2018 when Knoxville Catholic ran 9:19. Needless to say, it was never really in jeopardy.
But in 2023, you could start to see the teams forming that could make a legitimate run as the season progressed. Brentwood had the #1 time in the state at 9:20 and runners that were under or close to the 2:18 needed average in the open. Lia Banovac was at 2:15, Peyton Strauss at 2:16, and Rachel Haws at 2:19. Daniel Boone who was behind them at 9:24 had Ella Battel and Sadie Honeycut at 2:16 with others around 2:21. Though Centennial High School was sitting quite a ways behind these teams with a 9:37 heading into state, they clearly had the pieces that were better than what that suggested. Gabrielle Boulay was the defending 800m champion and could run 2:12, Rhys Ammon could run 2:16, Larkin Johnson was at 2:22, and Bethany Wright had a 2:23. The composite of just those times from different points in the season was 9:13. With ideal weather, teams that could push, and a state championship on the line, the Cougars not only beat the record, they shattered it running a 9:06.
Johnson and Wright will return this season with Boulay now at Mississippi State and Ammon now at Appalachian State. The oldest standing record currenlty is the 4x100m relay which was set in 2000 by Memphis East.