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Knoxville News-Sentinel PrepXra Cross Country


AEtheridge
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Those of you in the Knoxville area are probably familiar with the N-S's PrepXtra coverage of high school football, basketball, soccer, and baseball. Now we can add cross country to the list of sports the News-Sentinel will cover in depth. Imagine that!

 

If you read this morning's sports section, you may have seen a short blurb on what the N-S coverage will look like. Every Friday as part of the PrepXtra section of the Sports page, the News-Sentinel will include the following:

 

 

1) Sam Roberts(Knox West) will administer and release to the N-S and to coaches a coaches poll involving the cross country teams in the PrepXtra zone, which includes all TSSAA schools in the counties contiguous to Knox County, as well as several to the north (Campbell Co. and Hamblem Co., for example).

 

2)Sam Roberts and I will compile a cumulative top-30 times list on a weekly basis. We will include verifiable results from all meets that PrepXtra schools compete in, including major invitationals in Bristol, Lexington, Nashville, and at Furman, as well as more local meets like Panther Creek, Cove Lake, the KIL Coaches Meets, the Comcast/KTC Grand Prix Series, the KIL Championships, the Blount County Championships, Vol Classic, and any other meet with verifiable results. The list will begin with the August 24 meet at Melton Hill Dam and end with the Tennessee State Meet on November 6. We will use cut-off times of 18:00 for boys and 22:00 for girls.

 

The top times list will have the following format:

 

Date Name School Course Time

 

 

(I would like to include class in that, as well.)

 

3) We will release to PrepXtra team results from major invitationals that many of us attend, as well as releasing top teams and individuals who participate in local meets.

 

4) Sam and I will coordinate a 2004 season preview involving top returning runners and teams.

 

5) The PrepXtra Cross Country Team will be chosen this year using a formula in order to gain the most objective criteria possible for selection:

 

30% Final Place in KTC/Comcast Grand Prix Series Standings

30% Final Place on end of year top-30 times list

40% Place in combined A/AA, AAA, and DII Region results. (Since the DII race is at VAP this year, as with A/AA and AAA, we will add the DII times of PrepXtra schools to the times of A/AA and AAA in order to create a combined Region results list.)

 

I'm sure that they will have some space limitations, but we want to get quality coverage for as many individuals and teams as possible, from among all of the TSSAA divisions in the PrepXtra zone.

 

I hope that you are as excited about this as we are. The Knoxville New-Sentinel is willing to substantially increase its reporting of high school cross country in our area and are willing to devote substantial space to our teams. As far as I can see, this agreement with the News-Sentinel far exceeds any cross country coverage in any other region of Tennessee.

 

The email address for PrepXtra info is [email protected]. Coaches in the PrepXtra zone should email that address ASAP in order to get on the PrepXtra listserv.

 

Allen Etheridge

ORHS Cross Country

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