Elementary School
Here's some words of advice... if you want to make a living predicting things, be sure you don't pick Elementary cross country as your avenue to stardom. Cross country can be a very difficult sport to predict anything, let alone when it comes to the youngest of athletes.
Looking through all the Region results for the Elementary division, I've noticed that the top runners can be grouped into maybe three groups. Those would be the sub 6 group, the 6:00 to 6:10 and then those just at or under 6:25. It seems that in a short race and with the unpredictability of a cross-country contest, anyone in these groups could cross that finish line first.
Mid-State Region:
Ellie Forrest of Sam Houston Middle ran to a first place finish with one of her fastest times of the season in 6:09. As I mentioned, it's hard to predict what these young athletes will run and when they may just bust out a fast time! This was a good day for Ellie for sure. Overton County's Piper Mullins squeezed out a second spot in 6:30 just edging out Macon County's Karaline Evans who finished with the same time. You can't get much closer than that, and that's after a mile of cross county running!
The mid-state boys Region took a very similar turn to the girls. Marshall Rozell of Castle Heights won in 6:30. Then the second and third place finishers were a second apart with Landon Jackson (Discovery School of Murfreesboro) getting the silver in 6:12 and teammate, Zavier Smith in third with 6:13. The Discovery team also had Bentley Bergsten run a 6:18 to get three in the top 5 at the Region meet. That's a good group to all go under 6:18.
Chattanooga Region:
Pippa Piersant of Chattanooga Christian was the first place finisher here in 6:08.69. The name sounds familiar to the top Middle School girl and so this family may just have have some good genes and who knows what can happen on the big stage. The CSTHEA Patriots have a solid group of girls on their roster. Cate Campbell (6:23) and Annie Kate Hydas (6:30) may just help that Patriot team to match what they did at the Elementary Region.
St. Jude middle girls were the second-place team in this Region with a score just 3 points away from the Patriots. Luci Hill (6:33) and Brooklyn Bradshaw (6:43) lead the St. Jude team with both finishing in the top five overall. Ale Duran (6:48) was a top ten finisher for St. Jude and will help decide if it's St. Jude or CSTHEA Patriots who get the better at the state meet Saturday.
The CSTHEA Patriots Elementary boys' team from the Chattanooga Region matched the girls team with a win as well. And surprisingly enough, the St. Jude boys were runner up to also match how their girls team finished. The top finisher for the CSTHEA Patriots was Noah Keener in 6:19 and the top finisher for the St. Jude team was Bryce Allen in 6:14.
Carter McKinney of Normal Park was the winner with a tightly fought battle against Lincoln Price who was running unattached. These guys came in 5:55 and 5:58 respectively to get two of the very few under six minutes times across all the Regions. Chandler Rogers was third in 6:08. Any of these guys can be making a close run for that coveted podium spot at the State meet.
Nashville Region:
Paisley Denney of Foundations Christian won the Nashville Region and the lead-off girl in her team's runner-up team spot. Paisley ran the one-mile course in 6:08.64. That was a narrow lead over Nora Campbell's (Jonathan Edwards) 6:12.46 time at the race. These two were the clear top runners at the Region meet.
The third through seventh places made up for a closely contested chase pack. Ruthie Cromwell of Overbrook came out in the bronze spot and ran a 6:27. It looks like this was Ruthie's inaugural attempt at cross country but has a strong background running track where she's run a fast 71 for the track 400M. She could be a wild card in this mile race Saturday.
We had two boys in the Nashville race clock times under the 6-minute mark. Santiago Parker of Academy for GOD) took first in 5:26.65 and Eli Bledsoe (Foundations Christian) second in 5:46.04. Santiago consistently runs sub 6 for the cross-country mile and has posted a fast 5:19 for his best. He's running between 30 and 50 seconds faster than his last years times and I would expect he'd be one of the top finishers Saturday.
Tri-State Region:
The West Side Elementary Girl team did very well at the Tri-State Region. Jordan Hughes (5:34), Reece Emmert (5:45) and Laurel McDaniel (5:48) all clocked times under the six-minute barrier. That kind of performance will help them Saturday on the Victor Ashe course for sure. McKee Greenlee of West Greene middle also scored a top finish with a time of 5:58. Kendall Stills was the second place runner for that West Greene with a solid 6:12 as well.
Knoxville Region
Seraphina Kapaya from St. John Neumann Elementary broke the tape in the Knoxville region championship, even dipping under the 6 minute mark in 5:57. Leah Keys (6:04) of Boyds Creek and Lily Wogoman (6:09) of Greenback Elementary weren't far behind on the Victor Ashe Park course that will host the state championship meet tomorrow. Lola Rosser (Grace Christian) and Brooklyn Harder (Hardin Valley) rounded out the top 5 in a field that saw 7 girls break 6:30.
James Michalik took top honors for the boys in Knoxville with a time of 5:32. It wasn't the first victory of the season for the fifth grader from Sequoyah Elementary who won a number of meets this year. His only two losses came earlier in the season to the area championship's 2nd place finisher Myers Slagle (5:40) of Blue Grass Elementary and 3rd place Bear Areheart (5:45) of Concord Christian. These three, along with Holston Milligan of Webb and Colin Carini of Bearden Elementary, led a field with 12 boys breaking 6 minutes.
West Region:
Westminster Academy's Charlotte Wilkinson crossed the finish line for the West Region in 6:23 to take the win. But it was the Dogwood girls that came on strong right after that with Elyn Miller (6:28) and Ivy McIntrye (6:31) getting the 2nd and 3rd place spots overall to help that team get the win in a solid 46 points. Second place team contest was tight with Arlington squeaking out a win by 2 points over Dresden.
Arlington middle had a couple of guys finish in the top three overall to start that region contest strong. Mateo Ortiz ran 5:51 to win the region and Reece Davis a 5:56 to get that third spot. But further down, but still in the top ten, was Preston Wheat (6:09) of St. Louis Elementary. Preston's lead off finish was what helped trigger the St. Louis team title for the boys. All five of the St. Louis scorers finished under the top 30 spot and gave them a point total of 83. Dogwood scored 119 points to secure the runner up spot among these twenty one teams competing in this Region for the boys.
The Elementary division for cross country is growing rapidly over the last few years. Even though cross country (and track) never seems to get the recognition that the 'other' sports get, it seems more and more athletes are giving this a shot. The numbers have skyrocketed lately and that is for the boys and the girls. The same goes for the times these young athletes run, they are getting better and better. And the way cross-country works out, there's a chance that someone not mentioned here could be the person standing on the top of the podium. Come Saturday, we'll see just who the best in Tennessee is. Good luck to all!