Knoxville Catholic's Keegan Smith crossing the finish setting a new course record previously held by fellow statesmen Brodey Hasty. 
Photo: Dan Loughlin

NEW US #1

In the fall of 2021, Knoxville Catholic's Keegan Smith accomplished three things as a freshman that put him in the national spotlight: he won a state championship, qualified for a national meet (FootLocker), and ended the season ranked #1 for the Class of 2025. Until this fall, he had not done any of those things again. He placed 4th and then 3rd at his state meets, 13th then 18th at the FootLocker Regional (Top 10 Qualify), 7th at NXR last season (Top 5 Qualify), and hadn't reclaimed the top spot in the rankings for his class. Earlier this month, he was able to check off one of those boxes again when he won a Tennessee Cross Country State Championship and on Saturday, he checked off the other two in record setting fashion. 

The future Colorado Buffalo won the NXN Southeast Regional crossing the finish line in 14:23.3. This set a new Wakemed Soccer Complex course record, a Tennessee All-Time State Record, and propelled Smith to the top of the US Rankings for five thousand meters. 

Current US Rankings | Wakemed All-Time | TN All-Time

The previous course record was held by fellow Tennessee statesmen Brodey Hasty who ran 14:32.3 at Great American in 2016. Hasty went on to finishes 3rd at NXN that year. The previous Tennessee State Record was held by Silas Winders at 14:29 which was set in 2019. The US #1 mark prior to this weekend was 14:30 held by Corbin Coombs out of New Mexico. When the results get posted, Smith will sit a top all three of these lists. 

When I talked to Keegan after state, his plan was to do both NXN and Footlocker. Not sure if his plans change after this result but I can only assume it will certainly help him relax when and if he steps on the start line at McAlpine next weekend.