Five Races We Can't Wait To See Next Week At State - Boys

Ben Thompson


Watch Live On MileSplit | Meet Schedule

Can't make it to Murfreesboro next week? MileSplit has you covered with Live-Streaming of the running events each of the three days of competition. Can't watch it live, the races will also be available On Demand to watch at your convenience. 

Five Races To Watch

Division I Class A - 400m Dash

As a sophomore, Crosstown's Austin McCall placed 4th in the Class A State Championship with a 50.68. As a junior, he missed his entire scholastic season due to injury. As a senior, he sat atop the leaderboard for the 400m dash with a TN #10 All-Time mark of 47.28. He enters next week having run under 48 four times this season, with one of those being a 47.34 at the Houston Track Classic (above). With the state meet record being 46.60, it's can't be ruled out under the right conditions. 

Division I Class AA - 3200m Run

In each state championship since 2021, Signal Mountain has had three Eagles on the line in this event. This year there will only be one. But that lone representative is the defending State Champion Joshua Pote. Pote will be flanked by Anderson County's Vance Laster who grabbed the second Auto Q from the East Division and FOUR runners from the Middle Region: Central Magnet's Ty Brown, Hume-Fogg's Ben Abelow, Cumberland's Zachariah Ostrander, and Station Camp's Caden Costello. These six runner are all seeded within four second of each other so I'll be curious to see who handles the pace setting for the first mile. 

Division I Class AAA - 4x200m Relay

Four teams ran Tennessee Top 15 All-Time Marks this past weekend in this event and they are as follows: 

So picture the race above from Section 4 where Collierville and Whitehaven came down to the wire with Brentwood sandwiched in between and Science Hill right there in the camera shot as well. Will be exciting to see teams with little to no in season crossover on the same track like this. 

Division II Class A - 100m Dash

In their history, Franklin Road Academy has won just one 100m dash state champion. Brandon Jarnigan won that crown in 1998 helping lead the Panthers to their first ever state title. Since they have won five more team titles including the last two but have yet to reclaim that event crown in the process. Most recently, Jonathan Wilson placed runner up in 2023 and returns seeded as such (10.82) with teammate Kayden Richardson also qualifying seeded third (10.86). Their work will be cut out for them with ECS' Malik Truitt entering the meet with a 10.71 and Northpoint's JR Bunch right behind with a 10.87. Boyd Buchanan's Jayden Moore also enters the meet under eleven seconds at 10.88. Even though it's hard to see how FRA does not make it three in a row on Wednesday, grabbing this victory after all they've accomplished in the 4x100m this season would likely be a tone-setter for the rest of the night for the Navy and Gray. 

Division II Class AA - 4x800m Relay

This race was always going to be the premier relay of the Division II Class AA Championship but after the fallout from the At-Large Qualifying and seeing who missed out on the subsequent open events, I can only assume this will bolster the rosters for this relay. No McCallie runners will have the 1600m to save any energy for in the front half of the meet giving the Blue Tornadoes the flexibility to put their best four on the track. Same can mostly be said for Christian Brothers. Only Kaleb Smith qualified for the 1600m but the remaining runners like Noah Mullenix and Joe Edwards will not have other events until at least the 800m. Both squads have run 7:47 and change this spring and throw in Chattanooga Christian at 7:55 and I feel pretty confident the two numbers that are designated as records, 7:44.74 (State Meet Record) and 7:43.93 (All-Time Record), will not survive the week.