Oak Ridge Today

ORHS boys win Region 2 cross country championship

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ORHS Cross Country Region 2 Champions 2015

The Oak Ridge High School boys cross country team won the Region 2 championship in Knoxville on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015. (Photo courtesy ORHS Cross Country/ORHS Dance Cats)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 7:20 p.m.

For the second year in a row, the Oak Ridge High School boys cross country team has won the Region 2-AAA championship. The boys finished first in Knoxville on Thursday.

Oak Ridge senior Gashaw Duhamel finished first in the 5k race. Senior Tyler Boullie finished third, senior Thomas Colburn was sixth, junior Jacob Etheridge was seventh, and senior Daniel Beckett finished ninth.

Here are their times:

  • Duhamel—16:18.55 (first)
  • Boullie—16:24.13 (third)
  • Colburn—16:43.09 (sixth)
  • Etheridge—16:50.34 (seventh)
  • Beckett—16:54.68 (ninth)

Oak Ridge finished with 26 points, and the other two teams in the top three, Maryville and Hardin Valley, both finished with 72. A lower score is better.

The Oak Ridge boys team will compete in the state meet on Saturday, November 7, at Percy Warner Park Steeplechase Course in Nashville. [Read more…]

ORHS boys cross country wins McCallie Invitational in Chattanooga

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ORHS Boys Cross Country Team at McCallie Invitational on Sept. 26, 2015

The Oak Ridge High School boys cross country team finished first at the McCallie Invitational in Chattanooga on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015. (Photo courtesy Steven D. Martin)

 

The Oak Ridge High School boys cross country team finished first at the McCallie Cross Country Invitational in Chattanooga on Saturday.

The Wildcats also had three of the top five male runners in the 5,000-meter run, or 5k.

Senior Mitchell Poynter of Tippecanoe was the top individual male runner, finishing the 5k in 15:43.57.

Senior Tyler Boullie of ORHS was 14 seconds behind him in second place, finishing the race in 15:57.96.

Boullie was followed by junior Jacob Etheridge of ORHS at 16:22.88. [Read more…]

Two JMS students competing in Junior Olympics this week

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Josie Fellers, Muskaan Vohra, and Zoe Marczak with Coach Sam Roberts

Zoe Marczak of Jefferson Middle School, second from right, was one of three Oak Ridge seventh-grade girls who competed in the state middle school cross country championships in Knoxville in October 2014. Zoe and her twin sister Maxine are competing in the Junior Olympics from Aug. 3-8, 2015, in Norfolk. Va. Also pictured above are Josie Fellers of Robertsville Middle School and Muskaan Vohra of Jefferson. At right is Coach Sam Roberts. (File photo by Shellie Fellers)

 

Maxine and Zoe Marczak, two students from Jefferson Middle School, are running in the Junior Olympics in Norfolk, Virginia, this week.

They are the daughters of Oak Ridge Schools Assistant Superintendent Chris Marczak and his wife Sheila. Maxine and Zoe compete in cross country and track, and they are eighth-grade students at Jefferson.

The identical twins are running the 1,500-meter and 3,000-meter runs in the Junior Olympics this week. That’s about one and two miles each.

Chris Marczak said the two ran the 1,500-meter on Tuesday morning. Maxine, or “Max,” placed 37th in the country in the 14-year-old category with a time of 5:34.24, while Zoe finished 60th with a time of 6:11.06. [Read more…]

ORHS cross country team, boosters have fundraising pancake breakfast on Saturday

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Oak Ridge High School Cross Country Seniors

The Oak Ridge High School cross country seniors pictured above, the rest of the team, and boosters are having a fundraising pancake breakfast at Applebee’s restaurant on Saturday morning. (Submitted photo)

 

The Oak Ridge High School cross country team and its boosters are having a fundraising pancake breakfast at Applebee’s restaurant on Saturday morning.

The breakfast is scheduled from 8-10 a.m. Saturday, August 8. Tickets are $5 each and are available from any team member or at the door. The funds raised will help with travel and team needs throughout the season, a press release said.

“Our kids ‘run this town’ so please support their efforts,” the release said.

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Boys, girls cross country teams run tough at state championship

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Wildcats Gashaw Duhamel 2014 State Cross Country Meet

Junior Gashaw Duhamel of Oak Ridge finished 11th in the 2014 TSSAA Class AAA State Boys’ Cross Country Championship in Nashville on Saturday. (Photos by Kindell Moore) 

 

The Oak Ridge High School boys’ and girls’ cross country teams, both coming off fantastic first-place finishes at regionals in late October, competed in the state championship 5k run in Nashville on Saturday. The boys’ team finished third, and the girls finished ninth.

Girls Team

The girls ran better than their ninth-place finish suggests. Freshman Katharina Gallmeier led the way in running for the Lady Wildcats with a 46th place finish at 20:30:95, followed shortly by senior Aislyn Peacock. Peacock ran a 20:37:41 and finished 49th.

Following closely behind these two was junior Megan Peters, who finished 57th with a time of 20:49:08. Freshman Robyn Wood finished 70th with a 21:05:81, and sophomore Maddie Zawisza finished 72nd with a 21:10:75. Freshman Esther Gallmeier finished 98th with a 21:42:37, and junior Mallika Vohra rounded out the team with a 22:04:80 finish at 109th. [Read more…]

Photo: Cross country teams headed to state get Wildcat send-off

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Wildcat Pride Cross Country Sendoff

Wildcat Pride gives a Friday morning send-off to the Oak Ridge boys and girls cross country teams, which are competing in the state meet in Nashville today (Saturday, November 1).

 

Wildcat Pride gave a Friday morning send-off to the Oak Ridge boys and girls cross country teams, which are competing in the state meet in Nashville today (Saturday, November 1).

The boys and girls cross country teams swept the regional championships for the first time since 2008.

At the state meet, the first 10 finishers in the regional meet, along with the top three teams, will run.

Both Oak Ridge teams run on November 1 at the Percy Warner Steeplechase Cross Country Course in Nashville. The girls will run first at 1:40 p.m. Central time, followed by the boys at 2:20 p.m. Reward ceremonies will begin once all race results have been counted.

Oak Ridge boys, girls cross country sweep region, prepare for state

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Oak Ridge Boys Cross Country 2014 Region 2-AAA Champions

The Oak Ridge boys cross country team won the regional championship during a Region 2-AAA meet at Victor Ashe Park in Knoxville on Thursday. (Photos by Nichole Zawisza)

 

KNOXVILLE—For the first time since 2008, the Oak Ridge boys and girls cross country teams swept the regional championships, and the two high school teams will compete in the state meet in Nashville next Saturday.

Boys Team

The Wildcats saw some stiff competition at the Region 2-AAA meet at Victor Ashe Park in Knoxville on Thursday, but the Oak Ridge boys’ team had no trouble collectively running past all challengers in the 5,000 meter run. Although Dartanian Oakley of Hardin Valley took home first place, three Oak Ridge runners followed right behind him. Gashaw Duhamel finished second with a time of 16:22:08, Wesley Robinson finished third with a time of 16:25:57, and Tyler Boullie finished fourth with a time 16:32:36. Both Duhamel’s and Robinson’s finishes met the national silver standard, which is finishing a race before the 16:30:00 mark.

The rest of the Oak Ridge boys’ team finished strongly as well. Jacob Etheridge finished seventh with a time of 16:52:39. Shortly behind him were Daniel Beckett running at 16:54:74 to finish 10th and Thomas Colburn running 16:57:14 to finish 11th. Rounding out the seven runners for Oak Ridge was Jose Villegas, who finished 17th with a time of 17:13:91. [Read more…]

Van Druff, McGhee finish No. 4, No. 8 in state cross country meet

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Jordan Van Druff

Jordan Van Druff, an eighth-grade student at Jefferson Middle School in Oak Ridge, finished fourth in a state cross country meet in Knoxville on Saturday. (Photo by Nicholas Rhodes)

 

KNOXVILLE—It wasn’t the result that Jordan Van Druff wanted.

He trained diligently at the beginning of the season for this state cross country meet, hoping to finish first. Van Druff also put in extra miles, running up to 25 to 30 miles per week at his peak.

On Saturday, the eighth-grader at Jefferson Middle School led all runners near the one-mile mark in a two-mile boys race during the Tennessee Middle School State Cross Country Championships at Victor Ashe Park in Knoxville. But then, one by one, three runners passed him.

“I didn’t get what I wanted,” said Van Druff, who was undefeated in all of Jefferson’s regular season races during his three-year middle school career. “I wanted to finish first.”

Still, it was an improvement from his fifth-place finish last year and a sixth-place finish the year before, said his mother, Reneé Van Druff.

Van Druff, who finished with a two-mile time of 11:42.55, was one of two Oak Ridge runners who made All State during the state cross country championships on Saturday. The other was Faith McGhee, a fourth-grade student at Woodland Elementary School. She finished eighth in the one-mile girls race during the Tennessee Elementary School State Cross Country Championships. McGhee had a time of 6:19.50. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge cross country competes in Cherokee Invitational

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Cherokee Invitational Cross Country

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. [Read more…]

Wildcats cross country: Great result in only second race

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Oak Ridge Wildcats Boys Varsity at McCallie Invitational

The Oak Ridge Wildcats boys varsity team is pictured above in September at the McCallie Invitational in Chattanooga. (File photos/Photos by Nichole Zawiswa)

 

CARY, N.C.—The Great American Cross Country Festival is the largest and most competitive cross country meet in the Southeast. This year’s event included US #2 LaSalle, Rhode Island, as well as most of the top 15 teams in the Southeastern United States. The top event is the Race of Champions, and the meet includes several other varsity and junior varsity events.

The Oak Ridge girls were in the Seeded Invitational, while the boys got a last-minute invitation to the top-level Race of Champions. The Cross Country festival was in Cary, North Carolina, this past weekend.

The Wildcats’ best result of the day came in the ROC, where the boys finished 11th of 21 really competitive teams. LaSalle won with 132 points. Daniel Boone (Tennessee) was third with 144 and Brentwood (Tennessee) fifth with 216. Oak Ridge scored 291. The Wildcats set a school record for fastest team average on a 5K course at 16:18.

“Great result for us in only our second race of the season,” Oak Ridge cross country coach Allen Etheridge said. “Most of these teams have run between five to eight races this season and are race sharp already. That’s going to take us a few more races, which is fine. We ran well today and lined up well with our Tennessee competition.” [Read more…]

Pancake breakfast on Sept. 20 to help ORHS Cross Country Boosters

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Oak Ridge Cross Country 2014

The Oak Ridge Cross Country team is pictured above. (Submitted photo)

 

A pancake breakfast at Applebee’s restaurant on Saturday, September 20, will help the Oak Ridge High School cross country team.

Tickets for the pancake breakfast are $5 per person. The breakfast is scheduled from 8-10 a.m. September 20. All proceeds go to the ORHS Cross Country Boosters, organizers said.

Video: Mayor, school officials accept ice bucket challenge

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Jefferson Middle School

Jefferson Middle School

Oak Ridge municipal and school officials accepted the ALS ice bucket challenge after cross country practice at Jefferson Middle School on Friday.

Those who accepted the challenge included Cross Country Coach Steve Reddick, Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan, Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers, Assistant Superintendent Chris Marczak, JMS Principal Phil Cox, Vice Principal Mike Haygood, and Oak Ridge Schools teachers John Smith, Jacqueline Whitaker, Chris Layton, and Scott Linn.

The ice buckets were administered by “several lucky team members” of the cross country squad, the JMS PTO said.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (known as ALS and Lou Gehrig’s Disease) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease affecting nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. For more information, please see the ALS Association website.

Here is a video by Heather Hartman, JMS PTO president: [Read more…]