Cross country runners pictured above are, starting at left, Megan Peters of Oak Ridge, 10th place; Esther Gallmeier of Oak Ridge, 9th; Maddie Zawisza of Oak Ridge, 8th; Selena Robinson of William Blount, 7th; Lauren Cole of Maryville, 6th; Aislyn Peacock of Oak Ridge, 5th; Sara Bowden of Maryville, 4th; and Katharina Gallmeier of Oak Ridge, 3rd. (Photos by Nicole Zawisza)
KNOXVILLE—The Oak Ridge High School cross country teams competed in the Cherokee Invitational in Knoxville on Saturday.
Here is an edited version of notes from the meet by Coach Allen Etheridge:
Cherokee Invitational is a small meet that follows up the Knoxville schools’ KIL meet, which was held on Thursday, October 9.
We generally run well at this meet because it’s not as crowded or as intense as the big meets we attend, like the Great American Cross Country Festival earlier this month.
Girls
The girls won over Maryville, 30-36. It wasn’t really even that close, since we put our fifth runner ahead of their fourth runner by nearly a minute. In a larger field, a lot of runners would have filled in there, making their score quite a bit higher.
I don’t think that was as good a race as we ran the last two times out. It just wasn’t as competitive a field, so we didn’t bring the intensity that we usually have.
The best race of the day was either Maddie Zawisza or Mantha Wray, who ran a personal record (PR) out of nowhere.
Boys
The boys won over Maryville 15-52. Maryville is one of the top 10 teams in the state, and we put our top six guys in front of their number one guy. That’s pretty good.
I thought our top few guys ran well but kind of cruised because there was no one to run with. Guys who had something to run for ran really well. Jacob Etheridge ran a PR of 16:38. Jose Villegas and Dakota Curran had a classic race for our seventh spot at region—they just hammered each other for every step of the race. Grayson Aldridge also ran a PR.
We are resting a little this week as we get ready for next Thursday’s Region II Championships at Victor Ashe Park in Knoxville. (The girls race at 9 a.m. and the boys at 9:45.)
Our boys will be favored to win, while our girls will be one of the favorites for the win along with the Hardin Valley.
The results of the Cherokee Invitational are available here: http://tn.milesplit.com/meets/179740-cherokee-invitational#.VD5ek_ldWSo.
Here are more photos by Nicole Zawisza:
Katharina and Esther Gallmeier.
Gashaw Duhamel
Jacob Etheridge
