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 193-129, Webb 198-88, and Maryville 171-142.
Amazingly, the team did this without ever having their full team at a single swim meet.
The Wildcats will be back in action at the KISL City Championships on Saturday, January 28, at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
[Read more…]
People in East Tennessee and others across the country will be cheering for former Oak Ridge Wildcat Tee Higgins in the Super Bowl this evening (Sunday, February 13), and another former Wildcat, Zach Witherspoon, will be on the sidelines.
Higgins is a standout wide receiver who played for Oak Ridge and Clemson University, and he is playing in his second season for the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals (10-7-0) play the Los Angeles Rams (12-5-0) at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The game will be broadcast on NBC at 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Coverage of Super Bowl 2022 will air live on NBC and Peacock starting at 12 p.m. Eastern.
The Bengals advanced to the Super Bowl by defeating the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24 in overtime on January 30, with a game-winning 31-yard field goal by rookie kicker Evan McPherson. You can watch highlights of that game here and here, and read a scoring summary here.
[Read more…]
The Oak Ridge Wildcats swim team finished fourth out of 40 teams in the Knox-area Interscholastic Swim League (KISL) City Championship Meet at the University of Tennessee on Sunday.
With the fourth-place finish, the Wildcats have had top five finishes in back-to-back years at KISL for the first time in KISL records dating back to 1997.
“In fact, the highest place Oak Ridge High School had ever placed since 1997 is seventh back in 2003,” a press release said.
The Sunday swim meet was in the Allan Jones Aquatic Center at UT.
Out of 22 ORHS swimmers, nine swimmers competed in the finals, the press release said.
Here are meet results:
[Read more…]
Atomic Junior rower Mason Fischer of Oak Ridge High School has signed a letter of intent to Oregon State University, where she plans to major in kinesiology, a press release said.
She will be rowing for the Beavers in the powerful Pac-12 Conference, the press release said. Fischer is in her third year of rowing and was in the Atomic four that finished 8th nationally last spring.
[Read more…]
An image by Cope Architecture of Knoxville showing what the rebuilt Ben Martin Track will look like at Oak Ridge High School.
A $1.3 million project is under way to rebuild the Ben Martin Track at Oak Ridge High School by June. The asphalt base of the eight-lane track dates back to the 1950s, the rubber surface is washing away, and holes are visible in the disintegrating and patched lanes. The pole vault has been unusable since 2017, and track coaches and athletes from other schools have recently declined to compete in Oak Ridge because of the conditions.
That is expected to change with the new renovated facility, which could host large invitational, sectional, and college track meets. The renovation project will rebuild the asphalt base of the track, add a new rubberized surface, and replace underground utilities. All field events except pole vault will move to the infield. Shot put and discus rings will be on the north end of the football practice field, while long jump and triple jump will be along the straight section of track nearest the bleachers. The pole vault will remain on the south side of the track, but it will move to the west end near the field house.
“This is a first phase of what we hope to be a larger project long-term,” Allen Thacker, Oak Ridge Schools supervisor of maintenance and operations, told the Oak Ridge Board of Education in October. “This is foundational.”
The project has been talked about “behind the scenes” for a handful of years, and there has been intense planning for about two years, according to those involved.
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An image by Cope Architecture of Knoxville showing what the rebuilt Ben Martin Track will look like at Oak Ridge High School.
A $1.3 million project is under way to rebuild the Ben Martin Track at Oak Ridge High School by June. The asphalt base of the eight-lane track dates back to the 1950s, the rubber surface is washing away, and holes are visible in the disintegrating and patched lanes. The pole vault has been unusable since 2017, and track coaches and athletes from other schools have recently declined to compete in Oak Ridge because of the conditions.
That is expected to change with the new renovated facility, which could host large invitational, sectional, and college track meets. The renovation project will rebuild the asphalt base of the track, add a new rubberized surface, and replace underground utilities. All field events except pole vault will move to the infield. Shot put and discus rings will be on the north end of the football practice field, while long jump and triple jump will be along the straight section of track nearest the bleachers. The pole vault will remain on the south side of the track, but it will move to the west end near the field house.
“This is a first phase of what we hope to be a larger project long-term,” Allen Thacker, Oak Ridge Schools supervisor of maintenance and operations, told the Oak Ridge Board of Education in October. “This is foundational.”
The project has been talked about “behind the scenes” for a handful of years, and there has been intense planning for about two years, according to those involved.
The rest of this story is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or contributor to Oak Ridge Today. Already a member? Great! Thank you! Sign in here. Not a member? No problem! Subscribe here: Basic
Pro
Temporary
If you prefer to send a check, you may do so by mailing one to: Oak Ridge Today P.O. Box 6064 Oak Ridge, TN 37831 We also have advanced subscription options. You can see them here. We also accept donations. You can donate here. A donation of $50 or more will make you eligible for a subscription. Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today. We appreciate your support!
After struggling this season, the Oak Ridge Wildcats gained confidence headed into the football playoffs tonight with a 48-21 win over region rival Campbell County last Friday.
“This was our best game in a lot of ways, for a lot of reasons,” Oak Ridge Coach Joe Gaddis told his huddled team on Blankenship Field after the victory over the Cougars (6-4, 1-3 Region 3-5A). “That’s a good way to finish the regular season.”
The 48 points was the most scored by Oak Ridge (3-7, 3-2) this season.
The Wildcats also had the most rushing yards and total yards of the season, by far, against the Cougars on Friday. They ran for 366 yards and totaled 517.
“This is kind of a breakout game,” Gaddis said. “We were able to run the ball.”
Oak Ridge sophomore De’Javius Dozier broke tackles and scored three touchdowns as he ran for more than 200 yards, the best performance of any Wildcat this season. He also ran for three touchdowns. Dozier’s previous team-high rushing total was 130 yards at Lenoir City on September 3.
[Read more…]The USRowing Masters National Championships is in Oak Ridge from Thursday to Sunday.
The regatta is hosted by the Oak Ridge Rowing Association.
The event draws competitors who are 21 years old and older from all across the United States. For many rowers, it will be their first big regatta in two years, a press release said. The regatta was last hosted by ORRA in 2017.
Racing will run each day from about 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Setup for the four-day regatta began on Saturday, August 7. Teams began to arrive Tuesday, August 10. and practice Wednesday, August 11.
[Read more…]
Olympic athletes finished first in both the men and women’s divisions of USA Cycling time trial races in Oak Ridge on Thursday.
Olympians also won second and third place in the women’s division.
The 2021 USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships are in Oak Ridge and Knoxville this week with the Individual Time Trial races in Oak Ridge on Thursday. It featured the Elite Women’s and Elite Men’s divisions racing against the clock on a 11.6-kilometer course (about 7.2 miles) on Melton Lake Drive. Racing continues in Knoxville on Friday, with a criterium occurring downtown Friday evening. There is a road race on Sunday.
Chloé Dygert of Brownsburg, Indiana, won first place in the Elite Women’s Division in the Individual Time Trial races in Oak Ridge on Thursday. She finished two laps of the course in 30:11.22. Dygert was the 2019 Time Trial World Champion.
[Read more…]
Olympic athletes will be among the competitors in USA Cycling races in Oak Ridge on Thursday.
The Olympians expected to race Thursday include Lawson Craddock, Chloé Dygert, Amber Neben, and Lily Williams, according to Explore Oak Ridge, the city’s tourism organization.
Williams is scheduled to start at 10:07 a.m. Thursday. Dygert is scheduled to start at 10:35, and Neben is scheduled to start at 10:39.
The races are the USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships Time Trials. The riders will be racing against the clock to see who can complete the course along Melton Lake the fastest.
[Read more…]The USA Cycling National Pro Road, Criterium, and Time Trial Championships will be in Oak Ridge and Knoxville next week, June 17-20.
Oak Ridge will host the ITT (Individual Time Trial) National Championships for the third time in partnership with Visit Knoxville, a press release said.
The National Championships are scheduled just before the 2021 Olympics in Japan, where several Olympic athletes are expected to compete.
“This is an exciting time for Oak Ridge as we continue to show our natural assets and city to competitors from all over the world”, Hannah Fatheree, event manager for Explore Oak Ridge said in the press release. “We are grateful to the residents and visitors of Oak Ridge for their patience with traffic impacts and hope everyone comes out to watch the time trials.”
[Read more…]
Part of Tennessee Centennial Golf Course in east Oak Ridge is pictured above on Wednesday, June 2, 2021. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
The City of Oak Ridge made its last debt payment for Tennessee Centennial Golf Course in east Oak Ridge on Tuesday, and monthly revenues increased at the golf course last year and are up significantly so far this year.
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Part of Tennessee Centennial Golf Course in east Oak Ridge is pictured above on Wednesday, June 2, 2021. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
The City of Oak Ridge made its last debt payment for Tennessee Centennial Golf Course in east Oak Ridge on Tuesday, and monthly revenues increased at the golf course last year and are up significantly so far this year.
The rest of this story is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or contributor to Oak Ridge Today.
Already a member? Great! Thank you! Sign in here.
Not a member? No problem! Subscribe here:
Basic
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If you prefer to send a check, you may do so by mailing one to:
Oak Ridge Today
P.O. Box 6064
Oak Ridge, TN 37831
We also have advanced subscription options. You can see them here.
We also accept donations. You can donate here. A donation of $50 or more will make you eligible for a subscription.
Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today. We appreciate your support!
POWELL—The Oak Ridge soccer team won the district championship with a 1-0 victory at Powell on Thursday.
It was the first time the Wildcats have won the District 3-AAA soccer championship since 2017.
Marvin Media-Jovel scored the one goal for the Wildcats in the 52nd minute on Thursday, getting the ball around a Powell defender on the left side of the net and kicking it into the right side.
Oak Ridge coach Tom Gorman said the first half was back-and-forth between the Wildcats and Panthers, but he was concerned because Powell had better scoring opportunities. But Oak Ridge weathered the storm, settled down in the second half, and played better, Gorman said.
[Read more…]