• About
    • About Us
    • What We Cover
  • Advertise
    • Advertise
    • Our Advertisers
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Send News
  • Subscribe

Oak Ridge Today

  • Home
  • Sign in
  • News
    • Business
    • Community
    • Education
    • Government
    • Health
    • Police and Fire
    • U.S. Department of Energy
    • Weather
  • Sports
    • High School
    • Middle School
    • Recreation
    • Rowing
    • Youth
  • Entertainment
    • Arts
    • Dancing
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Television
    • Theater
  • Premium Content
  • Obituaries
  • Classifieds

 

Several hundred compete in Ben Martin Middle School track meet

Posted at 12:38 am April 4, 2014
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Ben Martin Invitational

Several hundred students from five regional middle schools, including Jefferson and Robertsville, competed in the Ben Martin Middle School Invitational track meet in Oak Ridge on Thursday.

Several hundred students from five middle schools competed in the first-ever Ben Martin Middle School Invitational track meet in Oak Ridge on Thursday.

The meet was named after Ben Martin, a legendary Sports Hall of Fame coach who won seven state championships as track coach at Oak Ridge High School. Thursday’s meet was at Ben Martin Track at the high school.

Martin was the first ORHS track and football coach, and he won championships in both sports and began the entire athletic program at the high school, ORHS Cross Country Coach Allen Etheridge said.

“I talked with longtime Oak Ridge coach Winston Russell today, who told me that he remembered coach Martin as the guy who was always there, the guy who would coach anyone at any time,” Etheridge said Monday. “(Martin) was an assistant football coach and was head basketball coach.”

Athletes from Cherokee, Jefferson, Karns, Rhea County, and Robertsville middle schools competed in Thursday’s meet, which included events ranging from relays and hurdles to long jumps and high jumps.

Ben Martin Middle School Invitational

“It’s a good way to get kids involved,” said Phil Cox, principal at Jefferson Middle School in Oak Ridge, which has about 100 students in its track and field program. The activities help keep children active and healthy, Cox said.

Bruce Lay, principal at Robertsville Middle School in Oak Ridge, said children become better athletes throughout the track and field season, which helps their self-improvement. He said RMS has about 77 students in its track and field program.

Thursday’s meet was hosted by the Oak Ridge High School cross country teams, which raised money for a new timing system used at the competition. It included two heats in every event, and a JV 100 and JV 1,600.

“This is a great step for ORHS middle school track,” Etheridge said.

Ben Martin Middle School Invitational

The Oak Ridge teams will host another meet on Thursday, April 10. It’s called the Jim McNamee Middle School Invitational.

“We named these meets after two legendary Sports Hall of Fame coaches because they are important to the history of athletics at Oak Ridge High School,” Etheridge said.

Coach Mac won eight state titles in cross country and one in girls track before retiring in 2004.

“Jim McNamee is the most competitive person I’ve ever met,” Etheridge said. “Hated losing and loved winning. Hated whining and weakness, really coached runners to be tough.”

Etheridge said there could be about eight teams competing in the Jim McNamee Middle School Invitational next week.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

Filed Under: High School, Middle School, Slider, Sports, Sports, Top Stories Tagged With: Allen Etheridge, Ben Martin, Ben Martin Middle School Invitational, Ben Martin Track, Bruce Lay, Cherokee, cross country, football, Jefferson Middle School, Jim McNamee Middle School Invitational, Karns, Oak Ridge High School, ORHS, Phil Cox, Rhea County, Robertsville Middle School, sports hall of fame, track, track meet, Winston Russell

Advertisements

 


Join the club!

If you appreciate our work, please consider subscribing. Besides helping us, your subscription will give you access to our premium content.

Some of our stories are free, brought to you by Oak Ridge Today with help from our members—advertisers, subscribers, and sponsors.

But some are premium content, available only to members. Those are in-depth, investigative, or exclusive stories that are available only on Oak Ridge Today. They generally require significant time to report, write, and publish.

You can subscribe for as little as $5 per month.

You can read more about your options here.

We currently offer five primary subscription options to readers, and they include benefits.

Basic

  • Basic monthly subscription ($5 per month)—access premium content
  • Basic annual subscription ($60 per year)—access premium content

Pro

  • Pro monthly subscription ($10 per month)—access premium content, get breaking news emails first, and submit one press release or public service announcement per month
  • Pro annual subscription ($100 per year)—save $20 per year, access premium content, get breaking news emails first, and submit one press release or public service announcement per month

Temporary

  • Temporary access ($3 per week for two weeks)

We also have advanced subscription options. You can see them here.

We also accept donations. You can donate here.

If you prefer to send a check for a subscription or donation, you may do so by mailing one to:

Oak Ridge Today
P.O. Box 6064
Oak Ridge, TN 37831

Thank you for your consideration and for reading Oak Ridge Today. We appreciate your support.

Commenting Guidelines

We welcome comments, but we ask you to follow a few guidelines:

1) Please use your real name, including last name. Please also use a valid e-mail address.
2) Be civil. Don't insult others, attack their character, or get personal.
3) Stick to the issues.
4) No profanity.
5) Keep your comments to a reasonable length and to a reasonable number per article.

We reserve the right to remove any comments that violate these guidelines. Comments held for review, usually from those posting for the first time, may not post if they violate these guidelines. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Thank you also for reading Oak Ridge Today and for participating in the discussion.

More information is available here.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More Sports News

Basketball: Wildcats beat West in rematch

After a close district loss at West earlier this month, the Oak Ridge Wildcats beat the Rebels by 17 points, 55-38, in a rematch at home on Friday. The loss at West earlier this month, on January 10, was the only … [Read More...]

Basketball: Lady Wildcats undefeated in district

The Oak Ridge Lady Wildcats are undefeated at 8-0 in their district, District 3-4A, and the girls have only two district games remaining in the regular season. Oak Ridge defeated West at home on Friday, 59-12. The … [Read More...]

Wildcats name new football coach

Oak Ridge football has a new coach, Derek Rang. Rang has an overall head coaching record of 86-29 at Powell, Dresden, Gatlinburg-Pittman, and Lewis County High Schools, and he coached the Dresden Lions when they won … [Read More...]

ORHS swim team undefeated in regular season

By Oak Ridge High School Swim Coach Chad Hodge From Oak Ridge Wildcats Athletics The Oak Ridge High School swim team finished the regular season undefeated by beating Lenoir City 199-120, Halls 165-90, Catholic … [Read More...]

Centennial Golf professional named PGA teacher, coach of year

Des Mahoney, the teaching professional at Centennial Golf Academy at the Centennial Golf Club in Oak Ridge, was awarded the 2022 PGA Teacher and Coach of the Year by the Knoxville Chapter of the Professional Golfers … [Read More...]

More Sports

Recent Posts

  • Basketball: Wildcats beat West in rematch
  • Basketball: Lady Wildcats undefeated in district
  • Obituaries: Jan. 23-27, 2023
  • Speakers mostly support TRISO-X fuel facility at meeting
  • UPF construction could cost more, take longer
  • Y-12 celebrates new fire station, emergency operations center
  • One person seriously injured in Wednesday crash
  • Oak Ridge EM prepared for cold weather to prevent failures
  • Covenant Health donating land for Roane State health science center
  • School board approves aviation career path

Search Oak Ridge Today

About Us

About Oak Ridge Today
What We Cover

How To

Advertise
Subscribe

Contact Us

Contact Oak Ridge Today

Copyright © 2023 Oak Ridge Today