By MIKE BLACKERBY
Hardin Valley’s boys were up to the difficult task of repeating as state cross-country champions on Thursday.
The margin of victory wasn’t as impressive as last year, but the Hawks nonetheless completed one of the best two-year XC team runs in TSSAA history.
Hawks earn third state title in 11 years
HVA scored 71 points to fend off the challenges of Siegel (99), Brentwood (109), Farragut (125) and Bartlett (127) at Sanders Ferry Park in Hendersonville to win the Class AAA state cross country title for the second year in a row.
Kaden Keller, Hardin Valley. (Photo: Dave Link)
HVA won the 2020 state meet in dominating fashion by 101 points.
“It was a little different feeling this year,” said Hawks coach Bryan Brown, who guided the HVA boys to their third state cross-country championships since 2010.
“This year we had a big target on our backs after everybody anointed us last winter as the favorite,” said Brown.
“The depth in the state was better this year, (but) the guys were up to the challenge. From top to bottom we ran well.”
Senior Kaden Keller led the HVA charge with a third-place finish.
Keller toured the 5K course in 15 minutes, 33.34 seconds to finish behind state champion Miles Ramer (15:10.35) of Ravenwood and second-place Landen McNair of Bartlett (15:19.66).
“Kaden had his best day ever – he ran a PR,” said Brown.
“Kaden hung with the top two guys until there was about a half mile to go.”
HVA had two other runners earn all-state honors for top-15 finishes.
Nathan Hillis (16:04.37) was 14th and Isaac Legault (16:04.82) 15th.
Rounding out the Hawks’ five scorers were Asa Mazow (16:17.64) in 18th and Mitchell McCown (16:33.23) in 29th.
Two other local runners, Trevor Coggin of Farragut and Cade Crum of Bearden, also picked up all-state accolades.
Coggin ran 15:49.23 to place seventh. Crum was 13th in 16:04.20.
Three other runners from the 5Star Preps coverage area garnered top-25 finishes.
Oak Ridge’s Manuel Cruz (16:17.89) was 19th.
Farragut’s tandem of Braden Ebbert (16:18.13) and Riley Hanson (16:26. 88) were 20th and 25th, respectively.
Also in the team race locally, Oak Ridge placed 11th with 300 points and Maryville was 14th with 361 points.
As for looking ahead to next season and the prospects of a three-peat, Brown said it’s too early to project just how good the Hawks will be.
Only one of the seven HVA runners who competed Thursday will return, but plenty of talent is coming back.
“My JV boys would probably have placed seventh or eighth today,” said Brown.
“It’ll be a little bit of a rebuilding year, but we’ve got a good group coming back. We’ve got five guys who ran 16:50 or better back.”
Lathrop leads Farragut girls to second
Farragut’s Grace Lathrop set a new school record, leading the Lady Admirals to a second-place finish in the team race Thursday.
Lathrop took fourth place in 18:34.60 behind state champion Kyra Hayes of Siegel (18:05.30).
Farragut totaled 96 points to earn second behind prohibitive favorite Brentwood (75) as the Lady Admirals ran close to their potential.
“Farragut ran great today,” said Brown.
“Region 2 is proud of how well they did.”
HVA took fifth with 191 points, behind Independence (155) in third and Beech (166) in fourth.
“We ran really well today,” said Brown.
Maddie Archdale led the Lady Hawks with a 10th-place (19:00.60) finish.
Andie-Marie Jones of Maryville was the top local finisher (third, 18:16.20).
Other area runners who placed in the top 30 were Kate Robinson (19:15.60) of West in 17th, Camryn Johnson (19:17.40) of Farragut in 19th, Gracie Franklin (19:19.10) of Maryville in 21st, Kennedy Reynolds (19:25.70) of Farragut in 26th and Millie Lovett (19:33.80) of Bearden in 29.
West (223) was seventh and Maryville (323) was 13th in the team standings.