Oak Ridge Today

Oak Ridge junior has top discus throw in state

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Oak Ridge High School junior Erin Van Berkel throws the disc 120 feet and 10 inches in a track and field meet at Oak Ridge High School on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. That's the top discus throw among high school girls in Tennessee this year. (Photo by ORHS Track Fan)

Oak Ridge High School junior Erin Van Berkel throws the disc 120 feet and 10 inches in a track and field meet at Oak Ridge High School on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. That’s the top discus throw among high school girls in Tennessee this year. (Photo by ORHS Track Fan)

 

Oak Ridge High School junior Erin Van Berkel threw a disc 120 feet and 10 inches in a track and field meet at Oak Ridge High School on Tuesday. That’s the top discus throw among high school girls in Tennessee this year.

Van Berkel had been ranked number three in the state going into Tuesday’s meet, said Luke Hadden, Oak Ridge throw coach. The top two had been girls at Alvin C. York and Jefferson County, and they had throws of about 116 feet and 113 feet.

Van Berkel’s throw is the farthest throw by an Oak Ridge athlete in a long time, said Allen Etheridge, Oak Ridge track coach. The school record of 128 feet and 8 inches was set by Sarah Gundlach in 1978.

Van Berkel beat her previous meet best by about eight feet on Tuesday.

“It was a great throw,” Etheridge said. “It was brilliant.” [Read more…]

‘End of the road’: Etheridge resigns after 13 years as head coach, six state titles

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Pictured above are Oak Ridge cross country coach Allen Etheridge, center, and assistant coaches Ed Wright, left, and Tom Sauer at the Class AAA cross country meet at Percy Warner Park in Nashville on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was updated at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 7.

Allen Etheridge has resigned as cross country coach at Oak Ridge High School after 13 years as head coach and six state titles.

His resignation is effective today (Friday, January 6). Etheridge was an assistant cross country coach for five years before he became head coach.

“I just have the sense that with cross country this was the end of the road,” Etheridge said. “I don’t know that I could bring anything new to the table.”

Besides the six state titles, Etheridge’s teams have won five runner-ups, three third places, one individual state championship, and 15 regional titles. The state championships were in 2005, 2006, and 2007 for the boys, and 2007, 2009, and 2010 for the girls. The individual state champion was John Sharpe in 2009.

The boys’ team finished second in the state meet in 2015 and third in 2016. The team won the Region 2-AAA meet for the third year in a row in October. [Read more…]