A light rain fell for most of the day and the fields at Camp Jordan Park were totally saturated. Too bad there weren’t any creeks to cross or fallen trees to hurdle because otherwise it was a perfect day for high school cross country.
Such was the case on Tuesday afternoon as Regional competition was held for 3-AAA, 3-A/AA and 4-A/AA. What was a fairly nice course at the beginning of the day was a mud bog by the end as the times reflected the less-than-perfect conditions.
This was an important meet for all the public schools in Chattanooga and surrounding counties as this was the qualifier for the TSSAA State Meet, which will be held at Nashville’s Percy Warner Park on Saturday, Nov.
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The top three teams and any individual in the top 10 not on those top three teams all qualify.
Taylor Cuneo and Conner Hawkins had the fastest times of the day for the double-looped, 3.1-mile course.
Cuneo, that petite 15-year-old sophomore from Central Magnet of Murfreesboro, had the top time for the ladies as she won the 4-A/AA race in 18 minutes, 58 seconds while Cookeville’s Hawkins, a slender and speedy junior, won the 3-AAA race in 16 minutes, 55 seconds.
Both individuals who dominated the Chattanooga Cross Country League and were the obvious choices for Runner of the Year got beat.
Cumberland County’s Ben Tabor and Signal Mountain’s Taylor Luthringer came in third and second, respectively, with times of 17:12 and 19:53.
Tabor was a step ahead of Cookeville teammates Nathan Longfellow and Hawkins at the midway point, but the order reversed in the final mile and a half as Hawkins won in 16:55, Longfellow was second in 17:07 and Tabor third.
Central Magnet’s Cuneo bolted from the starting line and never looked back as she cruised to a 55-second win over Luthringer, who had been battling a respiratory infection and wasn’t nearly 100 percent for the race.
Cookeville, Stone Memorial and East Hamilton were the three teams who qualified for the AAA girls while Signal Mountain, Central Magnet and Cannon County were the top three girls teams in 4-A/AA. CSAS. Loudon and Sweetwater were the top three girls teams in 3-A/AA.
Cookeville, Stone Memorial and Ooltewah were the top three boys teams in AAA while Central Magnet, Signal Mountain and Merrol Hyde Magnet were the top three among 4-A/AA teams. Red Bank, Boyd-Buchanan and Sweetwater were the top three in 3-A/AA.
While Cuneo and Hawkins had the two fastest times, other individual winners for the girls included Cumberland County’s Sydney Tabor and Boyd-Buchanan’s Jada Hale. Tabor was tops in 3-AAA with a 20:17 while Hale was the winner in 3-A/AA with a 21:39.
Central Magnet’s Jordan Shirley and Red Bank’s Tanner Crowe were the other winners with Shirley taking the 4-A/AA title in 18:03 and Crowe the first spot in 3-A/AA with an 18:26.
“That was an extremely tactical race as we started off really slow,” said Hawkins after his winning effort ended.
“I’ve been working all fall to get ready for a hard finish like this. I made my move with about three-quarters of a mile left and I’m surprised that nobody went with me, but it was about a minute slower than I normally run,” he added while wiping sweat and mud from his brow.
“I knew it would be muddy and that conditions wouldn’t favor a fast time, so I just ran for fun and went out and did the best I could,” Cuneo said afterward.
Luthringer never slowed down after finishing as she grabbed several cups of water as she exited the chute and headed back to the finish line to cheer for her teammates.
“I think I might have done a lot better if I hadn’t been sick, but I feel like I have needles sticking in my chest right now. The girl who won ran a great race,” the personable Luthringer smiled.
The Signal Mountain girls had the lowest winning score of the day with 26 points as the Lady Eagles had their first six runners in the top nine.
Stephanie Peterson was third in 20:22 while Emily Davis, Becca Umbarger, Erin Brown and Mattie Parker all finished in order from sixth through ninth.
The Collegedale Academy girls finished second in the 3-A/AA competition and Daniel Mihaescu was the runner-up to Crowe in the boys race, but as has been the case since the Eagles joined the TSSAA, they will not be running the state meet because of religious obligations on Saturday.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)