41.77
After Franklin Road Academy traveled to Florida for a meet over their spring break, I drew attention to the fact that it was apparent they had the pieces in place to make a run at the fastest All-Time mark in our database in the sprint relay for teams that were classified Division II Class A. On Saturday, the quartet of Boyd Brown, Kayden Richardson, Griffin Frankfather, and Jonathan Wilson not only lowered the mark of 42.09 Lausanne set in 2017, they took over the #1 Overall spot in Tennessee for this season and became the fastest Division II team ever in Tennessee history. As far back as our records go, (20 years or so) no team in Division II Class A has ever ended the season #1 overall in the short sprint relay. On paper, there aren't many teams across the state that have the pieces to match what the Panthers did this weekend so it should be interesting to monitor if they can hold onto the top spot and if they can lower the time in the process.
Tennessee Boys 4x100m Overall Rankings
Boyd Buchanan Boys
The quality in Division II Class A is not single threaded however. Boyd-Buchanan, the team that placed runner up to FRA last May, is back as well and on Saturday debuted to a TN #8 in this event with a 42.93.
They placed second overall to McCallie (42.72) who ran in the "fast heat" and I'm not sure why they were in the "slow" one but this was kind of a theme for them on Saturday. It appears as though they were entered without seed times which lent itself to races like this.
There's a trending sound on TikTok where a woman says "you're in the wrong heat my brother" and that's exactly what I thought of when I rewatched Heat 1 and Heat 2. Sabastian Jones, Jayden Moore, and Darrin Shannon ran 11.14, 11.14, and 11.25 to place 4th, 5th, and 6th respectively. If FRA runs the same four they ran on Saturday in May, Boyd-Buchanan may have to settle for second yet again but with these three ALL being underclassmen, it may be theirs to lose in 2025.
Brainerd Girls
Last May, Brainerd crossed the finish line in first at the TSSAA State Championship but left empty handed after a late pass from legs two to three. Though the handoff still wasn't very smooth on Saturday, it was legal and when Danielle Dunning crossed on Saturday the got the win and at TN #3 Overall time with a 48.87.
Brainerd competes in Division I Class A and though we have had Boys squads (mainly Pearl Cohn) end the season as the fastest relay in the state we have never seen a Girls team stand atop the rankings from the smallest public school division (at least not within the past twenty years). East Nashville ranked 2nd in 2017. A full second is somewhat of a heavy lift for these ladies to catch Bartlett but it was their debut and having three runners with the last name Dunning (Daniya and Danae) doesn't hurt the cause.