Rock Bridge's Luke Sievers placed 6th at this meet a year ago but got the victory on Saturday leading race end to end.
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As always, and for twenty-one years, Coach Hoffman,Christian Brothers University, and the talented crew of dedicated volunteers atthis meet produce another successful evening of cross country.
On the boys' varsity high school side, the Missouri team ofRock Bridge was impossible to beat. Weknew that from the start, but it's still surprising to see such a dominatingwin. All their athletes came in the top21. Leading off that team was LukeSievers with a very quick 15:41.87. Lastyear, Luke was one of the younger athletes on this team but still came in 7thoverall. Improving his performance byaround 21 seconds is a heck of a way to start off your junior season. Mathew Kim (16:15) and Cook Hudson (16:23) weretwo other Rock Bridge teammates making it into the top ten overall lastnight. Ethan Hockman (16:37) and SamuelShatto (16:52) made up the final scoring group for this team. Ninety two points ahead of the second placeteam is quite a statement for this power house team.
Clark Wade was the first Memphis area guy to make it overthe finish line. The Arlington juniorclearly came into this race with a plan as he improved his place from last yearby 31 spots and about 43 seconds. TyDurst of Collierville was the second local to cross the line and he alsoimproved his time by over half a minute from last year. That's a good way to start off the season.
With this meet being a highly attractive destination forseveral out of state athletes, there's always this unofficial competition forwhich Tennessee athletes will cross the finish first. The trophy (um... no, there isn't a trophy)goes to Franklin's Nilsen Hurst who clocked a 16:08.12. Nilsen hasn't run this meet before but made sureit was worth the trip with his 3rd place finish and a new 5KPR. If you watched this race, you knewhow tough it was to get into that top 3 spot with how close these runners werethroughout the course.
The girls Varsity race started out looking like there wasgoing to be a Texas rush on the course. Fortunately for the other girls looking at the team race, the SouthTexas Heat team ran only four girls. Hadthey run another, the standings would have changed. Elin Latta and Iris Latta ran one and tworespectively. Elin clocked a 17:58 andIris ran to 18:11. I hope next season their fifth can join as it was a joy towatch these talented girls compete.
However, just around the corner was Collierville's ScarletNash running a 19:24 that put her in 6th overall. That time was over a minute improvement fromlast season at this race and moved her up 21 spots. That was the start for this Colliervillesquad though. Just behind her wasGabrielle Gulstrom (19:44), Ava Lang (20:05), Addie Bogda (21:06), and MaggieWebber (21:12). That made up their topfive that earned them 73 points and edged their way to the top over West Plainsby a mere six points.
Collierville's top five went 2, 5, 9, 28 and 29thplaces and still had another two in the top 40. West Plains took 7, 8, 10, 11 and 43rd spots. Just goes to show that every second counts inthe cross-country world! The Rock Bridgeteam was third with 99 points. To saythe least, Collierville really had to earn this win, and they certainly did itin a big way!!
Scarlett ended up with the TN trophy (um... I know, there isn'ta trophy... it's a virtual one, ha!!). ButBartlett's Kaley Byrd was pushing her the whole way and ended up as the secondfastest TN athlete here with her 19:29 post. Kaley beat her time from last year and that was just a second off hercareer best. She's starting out the yearstrong and who knows, maybe she can drop a few more seconds off that 2Ksteeplechase time in the spring!!
In the top 20 of these varsity girls, six of them were fromTennessee. Collierville had three (we'vementioned them), Houston two (Nora Newhouse - 20:15.47 and Martha Kate Jessop -20:15.49) and Bartlett's Byrd. For twenty-oneyears this race has brought in the best athletes and brought out the bestperformances over these years... just a great race to enjoy.
And lastly, I'd like to mention the middle school races fora bit. There's a little bit of travelamong the middle school teams, but mostly from nearby schools and not like thehigh school level. The boys middleschool team competition had similarities to the high school scores. Houston took on the pack and scored a verylow 26 points that was 70 points ahead of the second-place team of UniversityMiddle (96 points).
Houston's William Pressler won the 2K race in 6:08.18 andLuke Lee (Christ Covenant School) was runner up with 6:22.71. The bronze spot went to Barrett Waddell,another one of these strong Houston athletes.
If you've kept up with the Memphis Youth Athletics (MYA)cross country and other races in the area, then it's of no surprise that MayaLang won the race. This WestCollierville middle athlete ran a 6:41.99 that was ahead of another very strongrunner in Hudson McDaniel (6:53.18, Dresden Middle). Maya kept the lead throughout the whole race,but Hudson made her honest by staying pretty close most of the distance. Another familiar name in the area, Houston'sChloe Tankersley was the third-place finisher in 7:09.59.
Watching these middle school athletes compete certainly makesit clear that we will be seeing some really talented athletes as they grow intothe sport!
The Memphis area is becoming more known for the high-qualityworld-class cross-country events we see each year. This Twilight always kicks off the seasonhere and sets a high standard. Coming upnext will be the Memphis Youth Athletics series for the Elementary, Middle andHigh School athletes. Then the FrankHorton, a multi-evening event that basically is a family friendly party with competitiveraces built into the fun! There's plentyof running to see in the area, so we hope to see you all out there this season!
See you on the track and the grass,
Coach Ted
