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Boys - Girls
| Sweeps, Battles and Records at the Mounts
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Highlights
- Mountain Brook sweeps boys and girls elite titles
- McLarty holds off rival James in Elite Boys race
- Morgan smokes competition in Elite Girls
- Mobile’s McGill-Toolen Catholic wins Silver Girls competition as Pitcock breaks division record
- Pearl MS takes Silver Boys’ crown
- Rogers comes within three points of perfection in Bronze Girls
Story By Arthur L. Mack
OAKVILLE, ALA---As expected, the Jesse Owens Cross Country Invitational lived up to its billing as one of the major cross-country races in the Southeast.
More than 3,100 runners in 12 separate divisions dueled on a fast course under mostly sunny skies and relatively low humidity. When it was over, Mountain Brook laid claim as the top team in the elite boys and girls divisions.
The other divisions had their share of competitive races, too, as a southwest Alabama school—McGill-Toolen Catholic—won the silver girls crown and Pearl, Ms. won the silver boys title. Among the small schools, Alabama’s Rogers came within three points of getting a perfect score in winning the bronze division, while Randolph, another Alabama school, prevailed in the bronze boys division.
Individually, there were also great performances. Mountain Brook’s Madeline Morgan thoroughly dominated the elite girls’ race, while longtime Tennessee rivals Kyle McLarty of Collierville and William James of Cordova battled to the finish in the elite boys competition. There were also two division records broken—Jacquelin Pitcock of Bradley Central convincingly broke the meet record in the Silver Girls race, while Catholic-Huntsville’s mark Fisher did the same in the Bronze Division boys.
Here is a recap of what happened at the meet:
GOLD (ELITE) DIVISION
This division was often called the ‘best of the best,’ and with good reason—it consisted of some of the top programs from several states.
In years past, meet officials used an all terrain vehicle, nicknamed ‘the gator’ to lead the runners in each race. With a drought that had plagued northern Alabama for more than a year, and with concern for the runners’ well-being, officials decided to use a bicycle to pace the runners and avoid a lot of dust being kicked into the air.
When the dust finally settled, though, Mountain Brook stood tall as the winners of the elite boys and girls division. The boys, taking advantage of the absence of Alabama’ premier runner, Hoover’s Patrick McGregor, put two runners in the top 15 to narrowly defeat Houston, Tenn. 101-115. Junior Layton Dorsett was the top finisher for Mountain Brook, running 16 minutes, 05.73 seconds—just behind Houston’s Lucas Cotter, who ran 16:04 90.
But the Spartans of Mountain Brook had another top 15 finisher, Richard Murray, who clocked 16:14.95 in finishing 11th, while Houston’s next finisher, Chris Hardy, managed only 21st in 16:45.96.
While Mountain Brook and Houston were battling for the team titles, a different battle was going on in the front of the pack. McLarty, James, and Homewood’s Philip Johnson were engaged in a duel for the individual title. All three were in a brutal battle from start to finish, and the fact that McLarty and James were regional rivals only made things more interesting.
It stayed close throughout the race, and fast—the first mile was in 4:50—with McLarty and James staying behind the leaders. They pulled away from Johnson in the final 400 meters of the race and battled all the way to the wire. When it was over, McLarty was victorious in an excellent 15:48.54, while James ran 15:51. Johnson was third in 15:53.63.
“I was trying to set a new PR, and I was able to get it,” said McLarty. “The whole plan was to stay behind the leader and out kick him. William and I have been rivals for a long time, and we always race each other—in fact, he beat me in a race a few weeks ago. Our region really brought it today.”
“If I had started my kick a little bit earlier, I would have had a chance,’ said James. “I came in thinking anything under 16 minutes would be fine. We’ve had some battles over the last three years, and it was like that today. I’m really happy for him, because we’ve always pushed each other.”
Pushing the pace was exactly what Morgan did in the Elite girls race. She led from almost the very beginning, getting in front of Sparkman’s Katie Huston and staying there, going through the first mile in 5:31 and the second in 11:15. By the time it was over, she finished in 17:56.10—just two seconds off the Elite division record of 17:54 set by Decatur Austin’s Jennifer Dunn in 2006.
“I felt pretty good out there,” Morgan said later. “I had a hard workout toward the end of last week, doing 200-meter repeats. One of the goals this season was to go under 18 minutes. We’ve been training on the hills lately, and today, I used the hills to put on a surge.”
Huston, who finished second in 18:17.44, said the race was a good preparation for next week’s Great American Classic in Birmingham.
“I’ve been feeling fine during my workouts, and today, I was trying to make it where I was feeling really comfortable,” she said. “I’m definitely ready for next week.”
Team wise, Mountain Brook was definitely up to the challenge. Morgan led a group of five Lady Spartans who finished under 19:50. Marie Demedicis and Leslie Boozer were third and fourth with times of 18:38.38 and 18:45.95 respectively, Catherine Diethelm was eighth in 19:13.06, and Catherine Adams, who finished 14th overall in 19:46.81.
That was more than enough to secure the team title, as Mountain Brook trounced Scottsboro, another Alabama powerhouse, 28-112 with another Alabama school, Bob Jones, third with 114.
SILVER DIVISION
Barrel racing takes a lot of discipline, as does cross-country.
“In barrel racing, you have to steer the horse,” said Pitcock, who has barrel raced since she was five years old. “It’s different from cross-country, where you have to do the running. But there is a lot of work involved in both sports.”
Against a loaded field in the Silver Girls division, Pitcock put that discipline to good use, as she pulled away from Chattanooga Christian’s Jessica Duble to win in a convincing 18:45.67—shattering the division record of 19:07 set by Huntsville, Ala.’s Khadiji Clay set the year before. Duble was also under the old division record, running 19:01.02.
“I wanted to be around a six-minute mile pace,” said Pitcock, who went through the first mile in 5:44 and the second mile in 11:44.
Pitcock, who has won several races this season, including the Volunteer Classic, where she ran 19:36, said the Jesse Owens course was easier.
“I felt great,” she said. “This course was a lot faster, and I’m really excited about winning.”
McGill-Toolen was certainly excited about winning the Silver Girls team title. Led by eighth-grader Carman Carlos, who finished fourth in a season-best 19:16.85, the Lady Jackets placed four runners in the top 20 as they scored 71 points, well ahead of Ravenwood, Tenn. and Pearl, Miss., both with 201 points. A ninth-place finish by Iliana Garcia (19:53.44) and 17th by Sage Blackwell (20:28.16) sealed the deal for McGill-Toolen.
“I’m really surprised,” said Lady Jacket coach Walker Yane. “Each of our finishers had personal records of 30 seconds or higher, and we had a nice pack of three with Sage, Iliana and Emily Dolan, who just moved up during the entire race. When I saw they did as well as they did, I knew we had a chance (to win).”
In the Silver Boys division, Pearl’s lower runners stepped things up a notch as they overcame the loss of their number five runner Tyler Mayher to defeat Oxford, another Mississippi school, 119-157. Pearl’s top finisher was Morris Kersh, who was eighth overall in 17:00.70, with teammate Andrew Harwell 11th in 17:04.41.
“We ran well today, and I was real pleased,” said Pearl coach Woody Barnett. “Tyler was injured and did not finish, and that made our performance even more impressive. But our other guys ran well, and when you come to a meet like this, you want them to step up.”
Josh Helton of Independence, Tenn. won the Silver Division boys’ race in 16:08.65, well ahead of Memphis University School’s Matt Grisham, who finished in 16:30.24.
BRONZE DIVISION
This division, which consisted of the smaller schools, had its own short list of outstanding performances.
First, Catholic-Huntsville’s Mark Fisher smoked the competition in the Bronze Division boys’ race, leading virtually from start to finish to win in a sparkling 16:26.32 and breaking the division record of 16:31 set by Jacksonville (Ala) standout Ian Helser in 2006.
Fisher, who went through the first mile in 5:02, and didn’t even appear to break a sweat, said familiarity with the course—especially the winding series of uphills and downhills near the two-mile mark known as “The Snake”—helped him enroute to the win.
This is my first time running this particular race, but my fourth time running the course,” he said. “The last two times I ran this course, I lost the lead at The Snake, and I believed if I could maintain the pace, I would have a chance to win, because that part of the race makes or breaks the run.”
It was another Huntsville area school, Randolph, however, which took the team title, defeating Mobile’s UMS-Wright 72-88. Remarkably, both schools were missing key runners—Randolph was missing its number two runner, Jonathan Fisher, who was on a fall break trip, and UMS-Wright, whose number one runner, Robert Willett, was running in the Elite Division.
But Randolph got a strong race from junior Keith Buell, who finished third in 16:40.17, and also got a 10th place performance from sophomore Hudson Robb (17:24.03). According to Randolph coach James Terwilliger, Buell—a defending state champion—was the key to the win.
“Keith ran a pretty good race today,’ he said. It would have been a great race if Jonathan and the UMS-Wright guy had been there, because it could have gone either way, We’re looking real strong for state, and we haven’t done a lot of speed work yet, so the best is still to come.”
“We basically came up to see if we could run without Robert,” said UMS-Wright coach Pat Galle, whose top finishers were Richie Huetteman (7th, 17:12.19) and Tucker McFarlane (8th, 17:19.15). “I was pretty pleased with our finish, because of the 10 guys we ran, five of them had personal bests. Anytime you do that, you’ve got to say it’s a good race.”
UMS-Wright also came up short in the Bronze Girls division—way short.
Rogers High, another Alabama school, stole the show with a 1-2-3-5-7 finish, defeating the Lady Bulldogs 18-67. A trio of underclassmen paced Rogers—freshman Katie Stewart, who won in 19:42.89; sophomore Taylor Matthews, second in 19:57.85; and another freshman—Alyssa Cabler, who was third in 20:09.39. Senior Alyssa Tingle (fifth, 20:35.53) and yet another freshman, Maggie Hamner (seventh, 20:43.34) rounded out the scoring for Rogers.
UMS-Wright’s top runners were Charlotte Galloway (10th, 20:58.09) and Claire Kennedy (11th, 20:59.89).
RED DIVISION
Ah, those B Team runners—they never seem to get enough attention.
But the athletes in the Red Division—consisting of high school junior varsity runners—had to not only run the same course as their varsity counterparts, but in most cases, had performances that would have raised more than a few eyebrows.
Mountain Brook’s junior varsity crew took a page from their varsity teammates, winning the girls and boys divisions. The girls easily defeated Oak Mountain 26-72, with Mountain Brook getting a 1-2-3 finish from Lauren Spivey (22:01.21); Betsy Cobb (22:16.16); and Madelyn Hereford (22:18.86).
Mountain Brook’s boys had a tougher time as it edged Oak Mountain 43-44. Oak Mountain’s Greg Bowen was the overall winner in 18:06.83, while Mountain Brook’s top finisher was sophomore Morgan Waterman, who finished fourth in 18:20.65.
The deciding factor was the second, third, fourth and fifth runners for each team. Here is where it got interesting. Mountain Brook’s second through fifth runner placed one spot higher than Oak Mountain’s, enabling the Spartans to squeak by with the win.
JUNIOR HIGH DIVISIONS
Strength in numbers—that should be Mountain Brook’s motto in the Junior High Large School Divisions.
Unlike the other athletes, the Junior High divisions only had to run 2.1 miles. With Mountain Brook having a very large number of athletes in the girls and boys’ races, it was almost a forgone conclusion it would easily win this competition.
Consider it done—the Spartans flooded the field with a sea of green and gold, winning the girls and boys’ divisions by huge margins. In the girls’ competition, Mountain Brook defeated Pearl 21-63, with Hewitt-Trussville third (74).
Individually, Sahara Fletcher of North Clayton (Ms.) was the overall winner, running 12:31.17, but Mountain Brook got a second place finish from Mary Catherine Farrar (12:42.94) to lead a 1-2-4-6-8 finish.
On the Large Junior High boys’ side, Hewitt-Trussville’s Carson Chambliss won in 11:17.00, but Mountain Brook’s Jack Miller was second in 11:33.59 to lead a 2-5-6-7-12 performance as it defeated Oak Mountain 32-73.
In the Small Junior High girls’ division, Pontotoc had a 1-2-3 finish by sixth-grader and overall winner Marlee Hatcher (13:58.80), and seventh-graders Robin Shumaker (14:14.73) and Katy McAuley (14:22.85) to defeat Pizitz 20-70. Pizitz, though, came out on top in the Small Junior High boys’ division, defeating Memphis University School 39-78. For Pizitz, eighth-grader Josh Kidd finished first overall with a time of 11:54.97.
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