Varsity cross country teams sweep in JCPS Championship meet
The varsity girls cross country team poses with their first place trophy after the race. Photo by Ava Blair.
October 14, 2022
The varsity boys and girls cross country teams both came in first place yesterday at the JCPS Cross Country Championships at E.P. Tom Sawyer Park. The JV girls came first and the JV boys came third.
The course was mainly dirt and the wind made it dusty. “Every stride led to dust getting kicked up in the air,” Jacob Bohn (10, HSU) said. Besides the dust, Tom Sawyer had beautiful conditions with low humidity and cool weather perfect for running.
The teams beat Male, Eastern, Atherton, Ballard, Seneca, and other JCPS teams.
The top six runners in the girls’ varsity division were from Manual including Jessie Secor (12, HSU). She led the team with a time of 17:43, a JCPS Championship record for the girls’ division.
Secor, who committed to the University of Tennessee for Cross Country, explained that without the support from the Manual team she would not be where she is as a runner. “Having this team environment, it’s just like making racing so much fun.”
Secor was followed by Bailee Montgomery (9, HSU) with a time of 18:40. Emmerson Wyatt (10, MST), Flora Biro (11, VA), Maggie May (10, VA), and Mary Kathryn French (12, HSU) all finished with times under twenty minutes.
“We set some time goals for the mile and the two mile and they [the girls team] ran exceptionally well,” Head Coach Tim Holman (Social Studies) explained.
The boys’ team also performed well with three top-six finishers. The top two finishers were Ellis Dylan (11) from Eastern and Brooks Jones (12) from Ballard.
Sam Chandler (10, HSU) finished in third with a time of 16:23. “I think it was our best race of our season cause it’s really the only race that, like all the boys ran together, so pretty successful.”
Brady Jenkins (10, HSU) followed close behind Chandler, finishing with a time of 16:41 and placing fourth. Oubry Gibson (12) from Butler finished fifth and was closely followed by Manual’s Tate Sinclair (11, HSU).
Holman expressed his delight with how both teams ran at the meet today. “Throughout the season, we’ve just seen consistent improvement, so we hope we can keep that rolling.”
The Varsity teams will run again on October 22nd for the KHSAA Class 3A Region 3 meet.
