KNOXVILLE – Greeneville junior Trey Bailey once crossed the finish line first, and this time his teammates followed in closed succession as the Greene Devils boys cross country team captured the Class AA Section 1 championship on Tuesday at Victor Ashe Park in Greeneville.
“This race was a battle. There were a lot of points where it was very hard mentally especially with the mud. I just felt a little weak. So, I had to tell myself that I’m not just racing for myself but the whole team and that I had a job to do and it was to get that one point,” Bailey mentioned after capturing the individual title.
It is Greeneville’s first section championship since 2016 and makes it back to the state meet for the second year in-a-row.
Bailey finished first place as an individual with a time of 15:58. Four other Greene Devils joined him in the top 15. Isaac Gibson finished fourth in 17:16, Jules Richard finished sixth in 17:35, Grant Tunnell finished 11th in 18:19, and Carter Raby finished 13th in 18:27. The team scored an impressive 35.
“That’s pretty special because we were hoping to get five in the top 20 and they get out there and have a heck of a performance,” Greeneville Coach Larry Blalock said.
“We all knew we had a job to do and that was to qualify for state and win the region and we accomplished both. We had some great performances all across the team,” Bailey said.
For Chuckey-Doak, Benjamin Merrill finished 23rd with a time of 19:02 and Blake Lippard finished 39th with 20:18. The Black Knights finished 8th as a team.
The Lady Devils received one qualifier for next week’s state meet. Freshman Ashlynn Ranly finished 15th with a time of 23:25 and will run in Memphis next week.
Cora Merrill was Chuckey-Doak’s top finisher in 32nd place with 26:20.
Next week’s Class AA State Championship Meet will be held in Memphis at Shelby Farms Park on Thursday. The boys will run at 11:30 a.m. central time and the girls will run at 12:20 p.m. central time.
“We’ll leave Tuesday and run the course Wednesday and race Thursday. I’ve never taken a group that far before. It’s going to be an interesting trip for us. We’re excited to go to state anytime,” Blalock mentioned.
In the boys race Volunteer was second with 64 points, L&N STEM Academy was third with 113 points and Elizabethton was fourth with 139 points.
In the girls race Cherokee captured the section championship with 28 points, Elizabethton was second with 60, Sullivan East third with 72, and L&N STEM Academy fourth with 75. Elizabethton’s Arvella Nave was the individual champion in 19:40.03.
