Cross Country Chattanooga League Meet

Walking off of the bus, you can see tents lines in pretty columns and rows. There are around 20 other teams competing in this race. Given each team has around twenty to thirty participants, it is a fairly large meet, small in comparison to some others, but in its own glory it’s rather large. A great deal of people are anxious, for many it is the first race of the season, including Lenoir City. It is the Chattanooga League Meet at Camp Jordan. It is just reaching 5 o’clock, and the sun is still overhead, resisting to succumb to night. It is rather hot and humid many people are sweating as they warm up, many people are nervous, first to race, JV Boys and Girls.

It is 2 miles to the finish line. A shorter than usual race, but none the less, it is still to be competitive. No one exactly knows the course, and so from the line, only the worse can be expected. Whether a line a grueling hills to the end, or a simple flat plains run, the stakes are not high, yet there is much uneasiness. As the director explains what must be completed to qualify yourself to say, you have taken so many minutes of your life, to run in 95-degree weather, for two miles. Not a necessarily large accomplishment, but an accomplishment indeed.

When they back us up to the starting position, everyone awaits the gun eagerly, stir-crazy, but not so much as to jump the gun, which would result in disqualification. All the faces, joking and laughing at line up, are now still and solemn. Determination as many place their hands on their watch to start their timers.

BAM!

The gun is released and the floodgates are opened. A running river of over a quarter of thousand children come streaming through the middle of the starting field. The starting area, can almost always be guaranteed to be a flat field, the is the one absolute. Elbows become daggers, in the war for dominance and entrance to the front of the pack. Some people parry others blows, others take a pacifistic approach falling to the back. The first stretch of the course is mostly flat, and it the outlook is positive. Jose Espinoza leads the boys JV, staying in the top 50 of the pack. Behind him is Colby Moore, Aaron McKeever, Zack Munson, Colby Greene, Matt Scarfo, and Daniel Guzman. In the end, the boys placed 7th out 20 teams for the JV.

Varsity boys lead the race, with our own Noah Baker placing in the top 25 out of over 190 other boys. Baker fought it out to the end, sprinting into the finish line almost breaking twelve minutes. The other varsity boys followed close behind, with Zeke Leon, Juan Cuevas, and Valentin Herrera came in 33rd, 34th, and 36th respectively. Jeremy Woody and Pepe Estrada followed behind them. Overall, the boys varsity placed top ten as team out of 25 teams.

The girls placed nicely, our first year runner, Kylie Pelfrey coming in at 20:48.10. Additionally, varsity girl Madison Guider, came in 38th over 150 girls.

Guider came in the with a strong finish striding to the end, when asked about her first meet, she replied, “I would have rather done a regular course, but I enjoyed the meet… it was a good run.”

Coach Kuhl was satisfied with the results of the meet, and at the end of the day, everyone had competed well, the first meet of the season was a success.

Junior Varsity (Mixed)

37 Jose Espinoza 13:38.20

38 Aaron McKeever    13:38.82

47 Colby Moore 13:56.79

57 Zach Munson 14:16.08

114 Colby Greene 16:01.00

118 Daniel Guzman 16:11.01

126 Matt Scarfo 16:40.17

205 Kylie Pelfrey 20:48.10

Varsity Boys

25 Noah Baker 12:03.21

33 Ezequiel Leon 12:08.88

34 Juan Cuevas 12:09.32

36 Valentin Herrera 12:10.16

102 Jeremy Woody 13:10.13

111 Jose Estrada 13:19.07

Varsity Girls

38 Madison Guider 14:52.53