The KIL Cross Country Championships were hosted at Sequoyah Hills Park in Knoxville, TN. (Photo by Charles Mays Media)
BY JESSE SMITHEY
The Webb School of Knoxville cross country teams had a day Friday at the Division II-AA state cross country championships in Hendersonville, Tenn.
The Lady Spartans won a team title and Webb School of Knoxville senior Colin Eckerman wound up winning an individual boys championship.
Not too shabby, right?
For the Webb girls, the win Friday snapped a streak of four consecutive state runner-up finishes from 2019-2022 and captured the program’s first state title since 2018 — and 11th overall.
Jazzlyn Garmer, Calysta Garmer, Carolina Areheart, Kristina Weaver and Lauren Davis all finished 12th or better in the girls’ Division II-AA field..
Webb sophomore Jazzlyn Garmer logged the team’s lowest finish, claiming fourth with a time of 18:05.74. Father Ryan freshman Lydia Brunner won the race in 17:52.93.
Calysta Garmer, also a sophomore at Webb, took seventh (18:19.49) while Areheart (18:25.26), Weaver (18:53.88) and Davis (19:18.19) also helped give the Lady Spartans a total of 41 points and an average runner time that was 26 seconds better than runner-up Harpeth Hall.
Knoxville Catholic finished 11th in the 17-team competition.
On the boys’ side, Webb wound up eighth as a team in Division II-AA. Knoxville Catholic was fifth. McCallie won the boys Division II-AA state title.
But Eckerman and Knoxville Catholic runners Keegan Smith and Radek Molchan all landed in the top five.
A year ago, Eckerman placed 16th with a time of 16:31.16.
Eckerman’s winning time this Friday was 14:51.54, which was roughly a second ahead of runner-up Jack Bowen (14:52.52) of McCallie. Eckerman is the Webb boys’ first individual champion since 2017 (Carter Coughlin).
Smith, a junior at Catholic, finished third with a time of 15:02.24. He won it all as a freshman in 2021 with a time of 15:29.09. He was fourth in 2022 at 15:31.78.
Molchan, a sophomore, was fifth with a mark of 15:19.32. He finished seventh last season.
CLASS A/AA RESULTS
Anderson County sophomore Ava Moody finished in third place in the Division I-A/AA meet, doing so in a time of 18:47.45.
Cocke County senior Bethelle Rush (19:18.25), Alcoa sophomore Kacey Holliday (19:23.63) and Stone Memorial senior (19:29.06) finished sixth, seventh, and 10th, respectively.
Signal Mountain won the girls Class A/AA championship with 62 points. Alcoa was third at 196. Anderson County finished 10th.
Signal Mountain also won the boys’ meet with 55 points. Elizabethton was fourth and Anderson County sixth.
Ridge Bruce, a senior at Camden Central, won the individual boys’ championship.
Vance Laster, a junior at Anderson County, was 10th with a time of 16:29.26. Elizabethton senior Riley Vernon took 12th in 16:34.94.