Oak Ridge Today

Moody of Anderson County finishes third in state in cross country

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Maddy Moody, a junior at Anderson County High School, finished third in the state in the Division I Large Schools girls cross country 5k championship race at Percy Warner Park in Nashville on Saturday, Nov. 4, 2017. (Photo by Kindell Moore)

Maddy Moody, a junior at Anderson County High School, finished third in the state in the Division I Large Schools girls’ cross country 5k championship race at Percy Warner Park in Nashville on Saturday, Nov. 4, 2017. (Photo by Kindell Moore)

 

Maddy Moody, a junior at Anderson County High School, finished third in the state in cross country in the championship race in Nashville this month.

Moody improved 13 spots from last year, when she finished 16th as a sophomore in the girls’ Class AAA state cross country championship meet at Percy Warner Park in Nashville.

Moody finished the 5,000-meter, or 5k, race in 18:51.53 this year in the Division I Large Schools category. That compared to 19:30.59 last year in what was previously the Division I Class AAA category.

“It’s a huge improvement,” said Derek Wallace, who coaches cross country and boys’ basketball at Anderson County. “You don’t often see those types of improvements down there.”

Moody normally races with a pacing watch, but she handed it to her mother this year, Wallace said. [Read more…]

Cross country: Moody of Anderson County finished 16th in state, Farragut sixth

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Maddy Moody, a sophomore at Anderson County High School, finished 16th in the state during the girls’ Class AAA cross country championship in Nashville on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2016, at Percy Warner Park in Nashville. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

NASHVILLE—Maddy Moody, a sophomore at Anderson County High School, finished 16th in the state during the girls’ Class AAA state cross country championship in Nashville this month.

During the same race, the Farragut girls’ cross country team finished sixth in the state.

The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, or TSSAA, State Cross Country Championships were November 5 at Percy Warner Park in Nashville.

As previously reported by Oak Ridge Today, the Oak Ridge boys’ team finished third in the state in Class AAA during the boys’ championships, and Wildcats senior Jake Etheridge finished 11th.

Sasha Neglia, a freshman at Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport, finished first in the Class AAA girls’ race with a time of 17:32.17. [Read more…]

Cross country: Oak Ridge boys finish second, Etheridge third

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Oak Ridge Jake Etheridge State Cross Country Nov. 7, 2015

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). [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…]