Oak Ridge senior Jake Etheridge, left, who is shown above running in the state Class AAA cross country meet in Nashville on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2015, finished third in the Cherokee Classic in Knoxville on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2016. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was updated at 8:15 p.m.
The Oak Ridge boys cross country team finished second in a meet in Knoxville on Saturday, and senior Jake Etheridge finished third.
The Oak Ridge girls finished 10th.
The boys, competing against 35 other teams, were running shorthanded because Daeton Byars, the team’s number three, didn’t run, and Jose Villegas ran it as a workout rather than as a race, Oak Ridge Coach Allen Etheridge said.
“He’s just getting his legs back under him,” Etheridge said of Villegas.
Finishing in first place at the Cherokee Classic in Knoxville was Daniel Boone High School with 61 points. Oak Ridge was second with 83 points.
Behind them were Maryville (128 points), Knoxville Catholic (146), and Farragut (160).
Finishing first in the boys 5,000-meter, or 5k, race was senior Ben Varghese of Daniel Boone, which is in Gray in upper East Tennessee, between Kingsport and Johnson City. Varghese, who finished fourth in the state Class AAA boys cross country meet in Nashville last year, had a time of 15:11.80.
Finishing second in Knoxville on Saturday was junior Carter Coughlin of Webb School of Knoxville, with a time of 15:43.24.
Jake Etheridge, who finished 22nd in the state last year, was third on Saturday at 15:53.29.
Senior Georde Goodwyn of Knoxville Catholic was fifth (16:05.52), and junior Seth Bowden of Maryville was sixth (16:15.96). They were followed by two more Daniel Boone runners—Zac Branham in seventh at 16:23.02 and Chance Bowman in eighth at 16:23.98—and Jake Renfree of Knoxville Catholic in ninth at 16:27.70.
The other top five Oak Ridge boys were:
- Will Jeter—13th at 16:38.44
- Reid Dukes—16th at 16:43.90
- Dalton Morgan—22nd at 16:51.17
- Christian Borden—29th at 17:02.55
The Oak Ridge girls, who competed against 24 other teams, ran without Genevieve Schwartz. She had a minor hamstring issue that the team didn’t want to aggravate, Etheridge said. Schwartz is the girls top runner, and Etheridge said she would have finished in the top five.
Finishing first in the girls race was junior Rebecca Story of Christian Academy of Knoxville with a time of 17:24.60. Story finished second in the state in the girls Class A-AA cross country meet in Nashville in November 2015, and she won four titles in four running events in the state Class A-AA track and field championships in Murfreesboro in May.
Also finishing in the top five in the girls’ race on Saturday were Sasha Neglia of Dobyns-Bennett High School (2nd, 17:53.34), Niki Narayani of Webb School of Knoxville (3rd, 18:10.27), Taylor Cosey of Christian Academy of Knoxville (4th, 18:39.04), and Shila Kapaya of Knoxville Catholic High School (5th, 18:50.83).
Oak Ridge’s top runner was senior Abbey Greenhalgh, who finished 45th at 21:10.46. Junior Robyn Wood followed her in 49th place, with a time of 21:21.79.
The top five girls teams were Dobyns-Bennett with 46 points, Farragut with 138, Christian Academy with 156, Morristown-West with 160, and West with 173.
The cross country team will race again on October 1 in Charlotte.
See the complete results here.
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