MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - After Tuesday’s storms, Wednesday was a perfect day for the state championships in Track and Field at MTSU’s Dean A. Hayes Track and Soccer Stadium. The sun was shining, a cool breeze was blowing, and Chattanooga area schools came ready to compete. There were multiple first place finishes for girls and boys teams for Chattanooga area private schools in both Division II-A and Division II-AA, but perhaps the biggest surprise of the day came in boys track. Boyd-Buchanan school ran away with a huge runner-up finish for the state Track and Field boys team title- with only ten boys on the team, and Silverdale Baptist Academy ended up in the fifth place position, a best-ever finish for a team that has been growing in size and ability every year. What is even more remarkable is that both of these schools have achieved impressive results without a track at their respective campuses.
Boyd proved to be a contender for the state title in part because of their strength in both track events and field events and also because so many of their athletes ended up with top five finishes. They started the day out with a first-place finish in shot put and discus. But they looked just as strong in the team running events in the afternoon. Head Coach Antonio Jones was ecstatic about the team’s second place finish. “These kids have worked so hard. We don't even have a track. And to be able to show up and compete like these guys did today, boys and girls across the board. I think we had six gold medals today. It's just, we scored with just 10 boys, so it's amazing. Everybody's putting in a lot of hard work. We've got a lot of great coaches, a lot of great kids, and a lot of great staff that have supported this team.”
Shot-putter Will White from the Bucaneers who had Boyd’s first wins of the day, winning in both shot put and discus, said he came into the day feeling confident. “I knew what I was doing. I was prepared.” When asked about what makes the Boyd-Buchanan team special he was quick to answer. “The community. You know, it's a tight, close group. So we all support each other and we're all together.”
Boyd also took home the win in the 4x100 meter relay and the 100 Meter Dash, with Jayden Moore running in both races. Moore said he felt confident going into his races. “Honestly, I just want to thank God for allowing me to come out here and be able to do that, you know? I just leave it up to him and allow me to just do his work out here.”
The Seahawks fifth place finish overall was a huge improvement over their previous year’s best-ever finish of 11th place, in part due to an impressive performance by senior Liam Runkle. Runkle has placed first in hurdles events for the past two years, but this year he placed first in both hurdles events, running so fast in the 300-meter hurdles (37.25) that his finish was the fastest in any division for that race. He also took home two other gold medals, for a total record four first place finishes in different events by the same athlete for SBA in state competition. Runkle ran like the wind in the 200 meters with a time of 21.85 seconds, and he earned his fourth win on a new event, a mixed 4x100 relay team including fellow hurdler Kaylen Owen, Sarah Jane Inman, and Titus Hinkle. When asked how he ran so fast in the 300, Runkle said, “I just think to myself, like, it's a 100 or 200 meter sprint and not really like a 300. So I just try not to think about that.”
Silverdale’s head coach Chris Neighbors was grinning widely at the end of the night. He said, “I'm incredibly proud of this team. And what they did, and for Liam to win four state titles, is unbelievable, really. We'd only had two ever. He'd won them both, but we won four, and obviously one of those was a combo race with Sarah, Kaylen and Titus in the mixed relay. So not only do we have the state title in that, we hold the state record because we beat all the large schools as well. So incredibly proud of that.”
In Division II-AA, two Chattanooga area schools also had top five finishes for Boys Track and Field. McCallie School took third place overall and Baylor School took fifth place overall for AA Boys. Chattanooga Christian finished in eleventh place for boys.
McCallie had three of the top eight qualifying runners in the Boys 100 Meter Dash and one of them, Andrew Smith, took first place. Smith also took first place in the 200 Meter Dash and outpaced the other runners by a good bit. When asked how he was able to get so far ahead in such a fast race, he said, “I mean, I honestly don't know. I mean, it's just the work. I mean, consistency… we would go and practice every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday; weight room every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. So I say just consistency is the key.” Mentally, Smith said he prepared by reminding himself only to worry about himself, not anybody else. “Don't worry about yourself, trying to do better than what you've done in the past.”
Chattanooga Christian’s Zachary Youngblood who was favored to win the first event of the day, the grueling 3200 meters, took third place in that race, but then went on to win the 1600 meters later in the day. When asked what he had done differently in the second race, he attributed the win to the race being later in the day. “I felt a whole lot better at 1600, I was really confident going into it. I was ready to give it a little bit more than this morning.”
Boyd and Silverdale were also in the top ten for the girls teams, with Boyd ending in seventh place and Silverdale in ninth. Some of the notable girls performances included Boyd’s Ireland O’Connor who took first place in Girls High Jump and the Bucs’ Lesley Burton who took first in Girls Shot Put. Silverdale’s Kaylen Owen took second place in the Girls 200 Meter Dash, and Grace Baptist Academy’s Brianna Jackson took third in that same event as well as a seventh place in the 100 Meter Dash. Jackson talked about her calling to run. “I'm just doing it because, you know, God called me and he had a plan for me, and really, I'm running for my school and, you know, his honor and his glory.”
The Bucs’ Edith McCall scored a third place finish in the Girls 800 Meter Run, and Silverdale’s Sarah Jane Inman took home fourth in the 1600. Kaylen Owen placed third in the Girls 300 Meter Hurdles despite an injured hamstring in the first hurdles event that kept her from finishing that race. Owen was advised not to run in the second hurdles event, but she gamely decided to try anyway. “I got some ice and tried to stretch it out and see if I could run, and I really wanted to run my last race, so I came out and did it.”
The Boyd Girls took a third place in the Girls 4x100 Meter Relay, and Silverdale’s Gabi Fernandes placed fourth in Girls Pole Vault. Fernandes is a double-sport athlete at the state tournament, also competing in Girls Tennis. After her fourth place win, she said, “I'm really excited. I mean, I've only been doing it for about a year and a half, so I think if I would have done it more and longer, that I would have been able to clear higher, but overall pretty proud.”
In Division II-AA, Webb School of Knoxville and Lipsomb Academy dominated many of the races. But there were also some impressive girls performances from the Chattanooga area. Mariah Ivery of Girls Preparatory School, took a first place in the Girls 400 Meter Dash. Ivery said, “I felt really prepared. I've been putting in a lot of hard work. On the weekends, the weekdays, I've been doing double practices, so I felt like I could just come out here and execute what I've been doing for so long this whole year, for this one. She also talked about what makes GPS special. “Just the sisterhood, it's an all-girls school. Work together during workouts and stuff. It's always fun, just other people around you pushing the same, trying to get to the same goals you're trying to get to.”
Baylor’s Ellie Higgs took second in Girls Shot Put and Baylor took fourth in the Girls 4x800. Red Raider Addy Cotter also took fourth in both the Girls 1600 and the Girls 3200 Meter races.
Nashville and Knoxville may have dominated in this sport in the past, but Chattanooga area schools proved on Wednesday that they are ready to offer some fierce competition.