On a near perfect day for running McCallie’s Cross Country team had one of their best races of the season. McCallie placed five athletes among the first 11 finishers overall to win the Front Runner Championship for the 6th straight year with a low score of 30 points.
The Front Runner store sponsors the de facto area championship meet that featured 27 schools. McCallie had a season best spread of only 35 seconds separating their top 5 runners. John Arrowsmith led McCallie with a time of 16:04 on the 5K Baylor course and was quickly followed by teammates Dylan Zeller in 16:13, Samuel Ligon in 16:18, Duke Richey in 16:23 and Benjamin Niehaus with a time of 16:40. Brown Hayes ran 17:16 with Patrick Kushman crossing the line in 17:37 to complete McCallie’s top 7 varsity runners.
McCallie coach Mike Wood was impressed with how well the team competed. “After a solid race at the Florida State Invitational on Saturday we hoped the guys would be able to put together another quality effort with a short turn around. They certainly responded today with a lot of grit and took advantage of the cooler weather and competitive field. John ran excellent, Dylan and Samuel had another good race and I thought Duke and Benjamin really stepped up. As well as our varsity ran I was very excited to see our freshman and other underclassman run fast in the JV race”.
McCallie dominated the JV race with 6 of the top 8 finishers and 9 runners in the top 15. McCallie’s JV will compete in the JV State Meet next Thursday in Nashville. In two weeks McCallie’s varsity squad will race at the TSSAA State Meet on Saturday, Nov. 2nd in Nashville. McCallie has won 5 TSSAA State Cross Country Championships.
Boys Top 10 Teams: 1. McCallie 30 2.CCS 54 3.Signal Mtn. 102 4.CSTHEA 122 5. Cleveland 217 6. Silverdale 248 7. Bradley Country 251 8. Rhea County 258 9.Notre Dame 272 10.Sequatchie County 295