Boyd, Vradenburgh Win Prep Cross Country Races

Monday's Event The First 5K At Heritage High School

  • Monday, September 19, 2016
  • John Hunt
The Chattanooga Patriots' Kathryn Vradenburgh cruised to a first place finish in the girls division with a time of 20:26.24.
The Chattanooga Patriots' Kathryn Vradenburgh cruised to a first place finish in the girls division with a time of 20:26.24.
photo by Dennis Norwood

Member schools in the Chattanooga Cross Country League finally got a chance to run the normal 5K distance after two races of two miles to start the season.

And unlike those first two races where the terrain was flat as a pancake at Camp Jordan, Monday’s race at Heritage High School in Ringgold offered some challenging hills.

It probably didn’t matter to overall winners Kathryn Vradenburgh and Jonathan Boyd as they completely ran away with first place in their races as they were both all alone when they crossed the finish line.

Vradenburgh was the winner among 130 girls as she covered the looping 3.1-mile course in 20 minutes, 26.54 seconds to beat runner-up Noorsabeeh Sabeeh of Heritage by 77 seconds.

Alex Gass of Heritage was third in 21:53 while McMinn Central’s Ashlyn Broling was fourth in 21:59 and Boyd-Buchanan’s Jada Hale fifth in 22:04.

Team scoring was broken into two divisions with the Chattanooga Patriots winning both for the Independent school division.  The Heritage girls were the winners among the league member schools with 35 points while Northwest Whitfield was second with 79 and East Hamilton third with 95.

While the homeschooled Patriots claimed first place among the girls, they had the top two runners in the boys race as Boyd posted a time of 16:46.33 to beat 14-year-old freshman teammate Chase Faudi by 33 seconds.

Jerryd Tennyson of Heritage was third in 17:37 while Erik Martinez of Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe was fourth in 17:40 and Red Bank’s Cole Bullock fifth in 17:43.

Baylor was the team winner among league member teams with 41 points while Cleveland was a distant second with 125 and Walker Valley third with 166.

Monday’s weather wasn’t cool by any stretch, but conditions weren’t quite as oppressive as they had been for the first two races.  Temperatures were somewhat lower, the humidity didn’t seem quite as bad and there was even a little shade along the way.

Vradenburgh is really a soft-spoken young lady who would really rather let her running speak for itself, but she is beginning to come around after being in the spotlight several times already this fall.

“It was okay, but I came here today hoping to get first place,” she suggested after exiting the finish chute on Monday.

“I would have liked to be faster, but the hills were hard and the shade was nice.  I can always run faster when I have someone to run with, but I’m glad that I finished first,” she added with a smile.

Sabeeh is a 17-year-old senior who may have had the advantage of running on her home course.  She said that she and her teammates run that route occasionally, but it’s not a course they run on a routine basis.

“I had a good run and I may have had an advantage by knowing the course,” she explained after catching her breath.

“I was really just hoping to finish in the top five, but I had an adrenalin rush in that last mile and started passing people.  That’s when I made my move and I knew that I would have to maintain my pace until the end,” she added.

Boyd has now won two of the three league races.  His time on Monday was within 10 seconds of his 5K personal record, which is really impressive on a hot day on a hilly course when he was all alone for most of the distance.

“I’m just glad it was finally a 5K,” he said after congratulating his teammate Faudi after their 1-2 finish.

“I really didn’t know who would be here, but I was hoping to win if I could.  It was a hard course, but the pace guy on the bike was right in front of me and I used him as my pacer.  But I’m so glad that my race today was so much better than last year when I went out too hard, tripped over a log and finished in 17:46,” he recalled that less-than-positive experience.

Faudi is a 14-year-old ninth grader who just gets faster and stronger with each passing race.  A lot of folks familiar with the sport feel like he will give his older teammate a real run before it’s over, but it didn’t happen on Monday.

“It was hilly and hard, but I had a pretty good race,” he said as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

“I usually start slow and pick it up as we progress, but my goal today was to catch the kid who was behind Jonathan.  I was able to do that about the two-mile mark.  This was my first 5K cross country race and I really didn’t know what to expect, but it was a nice course and it turned out okay,” he added.

Next week’s league meet will be held at Baylor on Tuesday.

(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)

Jonathan Boyd of the Chattanooga Patriots made it a double-down day for the team when he ran to a 16:46.33 first place finish to take the win in the boys' competition.
Jonathan Boyd of the Chattanooga Patriots made it a double-down day for the team when he ran to a 16:46.33 first place finish to take the win in the boys' competition.
photo by Dennis Norwood
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