800trackmom

I love you guys (I'm assuming that you are all male). You have made this tired, sick, old lady laugh today. So is running your only specialty or can you leap tall buildings too. Oh wait. that would go on the track and field forum, not XC.

Jackie reminded Tiffany and Amber that she can still run at Jesse Owens. I still think those three will be the top three but I have no idea what order they will finish. Region Champ--take your pick.

Times can vary a lot depending on the course, the condition of the course. the weather, etc, etc. There are a few who are so good that they win dispite the adverse conditons. Jill Skinner comes to mind, the guys from Houston come to mind, and of course Bumbi comes to mind. It's hard to just compare times if those times didn't come on the same course under the same conditions. Last year at state was a great example of how much the weather determines times. Had it not been so hot, most everyone's time would have been better.

Jackie seems to be in a little slump, but it has happened before and she's pulled out of it. Give some credit to Tiffany Palmer and Amber Kienlen. Both are working very hard this year. Right now Tiffany looks like she is the one to beat. She ran really well at Tuesday's meet. I think Tiffany, Amber, and Jackie will be the top three in the region. They are all great runners and very nice young ladies. Best of luck to all of them.

If last Saturday in Nashville at Bridges is any indication, she's going to win, and win BIG.

They definitely have at least one girl who can really run. So who do they have backing her up and how good are they? If Ooltewah only has three girls running, it might be a Bradley Country battle (BCHS and CHS) Anyone heard how good McMinn's girls are this year?

Her name is Paloma Floden.

I'm so glad to see that the Bradley and McMinn guys still have some fire left in them. There is nothing like a good rivals to keep things exciting. I think Mat Baltimore is and will be one of the best runners to come out of Bradley and my heart would love to see him win region. My head tells me that most likely will not happen. I hope all you guys run really great times this year and represent this region well at the state meet. thumb

And his girls have done what?

Larry Cotton for either one. His girls have won region the past two years and should make another good run. The boys team has finished second the past two years and should be strong again this year. If you look at both teams, he has been the best coach the past two years and should be again. The man is devoted to BCHS XC and T&F. He deserves a lot more recognition than he gets.

So why don't you tell about how the Cumberland Country player cursed Bradley's coach and the CC coach refused to take any action, no apology, nothing. Or maybe we could talk about how the Bradley people were ordered from the parking lot as we were trying to decide some place to go eat. Sounds like it's ok for CC to be totally classless but you guys can't take it when someone else gets down and dirty with you. Neither team, nor their fans, would have won any sportsmanship award at this one. As for the goal keeper, she did not have control of the ball and the Bradley girl was going for the ball. We don't play to try to hurt people and we hope the young lady is doing ok. And for your information, the BCHS Mommas and Dads were there. We are proud of our daughters. They refused to be intimidated and they never gave up. I can promise you that Coach McKinney would not tolerate any mooning from any player.

And the fifth girl that BCHStrack1 refers to plans to start running in the mornings with the XC team. Soccer will be over by Region and she would be available if the XC team needed her. And there is a possiblity that another soccer player might run too. She has helped the XC team out in the past. I'm really glad to hear that everyone has a good attitude. Jackie is awesome. Amber, Jenna, and Jesse are all capable of placing in the top ten at region and it sounds like the new girl will be very good. Sounds like Bradley is poised for another good year. Best of luck, Bearettes.

First of all, I have learned the hard way never to predict that anyone will win anythng. There are just too many unknowns. I try to always say that I hope or I wish that so and so does this or that because that is all I can really do. All I know about James Strang is things that local people have told me. I know he had a serious iron deficiency during crosscountry that kept him out to the end of the season. I know that every race I've seen him run that he give 110%. He goes to a good school and he takes running seriously. I like to see local kids do well. I also like to see underdogs do well. It keeps things interesting. Losing in the 800 to Strang did nothing to tarnish AB's image in anyway. Strang is also a great runner. He represented Baylor school and the city of Chattanooga very well.

Now the link is up and working.

I got an e-mail from TSSAA saying the boys results were posted but I don't see a live link yet. Anyone have the results from AAA?

Would you like to repeat that? Don't get me wrong, I think Bumbi is truly a great, great runner, the best distance runner in the state, BUT Strang is a mighty fine runner too. Call it woman's intuition or whatever, but I really believed that Strang would get a state championship. I'm glad he did. He's worked very hard and is definitely one of the two best distance runners in the state of Tennessee. Congrats to both young men.

The whole concept of "Spring Fling" was birthed in Chattanooga. Spring Fling is now a money making machine for TSSAA. Memphis actually "lost" money on spring fling because of the money that is pledged to TSSAA. Course the city of Memphis sees a lot of money change hands during spring fling so they don't mind that the group that actually puts on spring fling loses money. TSSAA could care less about any of the athletes, it's all about money. The bottom line is that which ever city offers TSSAA the most money wins the right to have "Spring fling". So what if the baseball or softball games are actually played in Mississippi, instead of TN, so what if the heat and humidity are the worst in the state. It's about money. Until someone convinces TSSAA that there are other more important considerations, Spring fling will go to the city who spends the most to buy it.

Don't underestimate Mr. Strang. If Townsend runs a great 1600, Strang might back off and save his energy for the 800. Strang's been against Bumbi many times and I'm betting there is a lot of strategy going on at both Baylor and BA. Should be three real exciting runs to watch. Being from the Chattanooga area, I hope Strang pull through in at least one event. He deserves way more credit than a lot of you are giving him. Interesting enough, if there were no "Bumbi", you all might be talking about whether Strang could triple or not.

Competition must not be too slow, since he didn't have the best qualifying time in either event. Don't rule out Slater in the 100 or Thompson in the 200.

If Lamar does well, they can finish top 5. They needed more qualifiers to make a real run at state. Still this team did really well for Coach Cotton. Good luck Bears!!!

Not unless she has some better times than are listed here. High 15's verses high 14's is a big difference in hurdles, perhaps even the difference in going to state or not. What is her best time in a meet?

While the young lady from Ooltewah is good, she is not in the league of either Trimiew or Stokes. In the head to head at Best of Preps, Trimiew ran 14.66 and Stokes ran 14.9. I believe the young lady from Ooltewah finshed behind two other competitors from her region. In the Chattanooga area, Heather Trimiew is the best.

The 1500 and PV will be Lamar's weakest events but even then he will be better at those than last year and he is so much improved at long jump (high 22's verses in the 20's last year) and high jump (6'4 vrs 5 something last year). His 400 times has improved a couple of seconds and his hurdles time is much better. He's decent at the throws, but the jumps (LJ, TJ, and even HJ) are his strenghs and the running events other than the 1500 are kind to him to. The key for Lamar is ATTITUDE. If he goes wanting to compete, wanting to win, giving it his all, then that attitude will be worth 500 easy points to him verses if he just shows up. He's got the talent. I wish him the best of luck.

Wow. That is a very impressive pentathlon result. Any idea of what grade she is in. Also what are her best events? Congratuations on an excellent performance.

Michael Bingham looked totally awesome at Optimist. He said he wasn't jumping great but boy did he make up for it when it came time to run. I believe the Chattanooga paper said there were eighteen teams at the event and that Bingham had more points than 13 of those teams. It will be interesting to see what kind of a decathalon total he has this year. It will also be interesting to see what three running events he competes in.