By Steve Williams
Hardin Valley Academy’s Mitchell McCown was a surprise winner in the Knoxville Livestock Center Fall Classic Saturday.
Competing in the High School Varsity A Division, McCown covered the 5,000-meter course in Mascot in 16 minutes, 51.03 seconds to finish ahead of HVA teammate and the meet favorite Kaden Keller, who was clocked in 16:54.82.
Zimri Kuhn of the Knoxville Ambassadors Homeschool team also made a strong showing and took third in 16:54.99.
Hardin Valley runners Alex Brittain (17:08.10), Daniel Blackston (17:18.96) and Nathan Hillis (17:20.02) placed fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.
The Ambassadors’ Carter Rivera (17:20.35), HVA’s Asa Mazow (17:27.20) and HVA’s Isaac Legault (17:44.64) came in seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively, as Knoxville runners dominated the boys’ field.
In the Varsity A High School girls’ division, Andie-Marie Jones of Maryville won with a 5K time of 19:15.05.
Maddie Archdale of Hardin Valley Academy was runner-up at 19:55.01.
The top 10 also included third-place finisher Savannah Rivera of the Knoxville Ambassadors Homeschool (20:12.13) and Emma Dewalt of West in ninth place with a time of 21:36.97.
COVID-19 ends 49-year tradition at Percy Warner Park
The TSSAA state cross country championships will be held at a different venue this year.
Due to the uncertainty of COVID-19 and the city of Nashville’s phased reopening plan, the TSSAA has made plans to have the event at Sanders Ferry Park in Hendersonville. It also will be held over a two-day period instead of being the traditional one-day event in order to allow for safe social distancing.
This will be the first year since 1971 for the Steeplechase Course at Percy Warner Park in Nashville to not be the site of the state.
Division I Large and Small meets for girls and boys are scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 5, while the Division II AA and A girls’ and boys’ meets are slated for Friday, Nov. 6.
A high school golf oddity
Have you seen this before?
Check out the nine-hole individual scoring for the Farragut High boys’ golf team in a four-way match at Beaver Brook on Aug. 31.
Farragut (140): Lance Simpson 35, AJ Rinehart 35, Connor Price 35, Brady Harville 35.
CAK (147) took second place followed by Alcoa (156) and Halls (157).
In girls’ action that day, seniors Lexanne Halama (37) and Lindsay Ott (41) combined for a winning total of 78. Halls (80) was two shots back of the Lady Admirals and CAK totaled 85.
District tournament action for high school golfers is coming up soon.
Farragut will play in its district tourney Sept. 16 at the Egwani Golf Course.
Bearden unbeaten in MAC football
After three weeks of play, Bearden sits atop the MAC varsity division standings with a 3-0 record after last week’s 56-24 win over West.
In other Week 3 action in the Middle-School Age Conference, Alcoa handed Farragut its first loss 24-18, Karns cracked the win column by beating Carter 19-0 and Gibbs edged rival Halls 16-14.
In JV games last week, unbeaten Farragut shut out Alcoa 24-0, Bearden also improved to 3-0 with a 14-12 win over West, Carter nipped Karns 14-12 and Halls blasted Gibbs 34-7.
This Thursday’s schedule matches Farragut at Carter, Karns at West, Halls at Alcoa and Hardin Valley Academy at Gibbs.
JV games start at 6:30 and Varsity games at 8 on the high school fields.
