October 21, 2019
By:
On a chilly and rainy afternoon, the DMS cross country teams spent Saturday, October 19th battling it out with 31 of the best teams at the Tennessee State XC Middle School Championships. The race was held at Victor Ashe Park in Knoxville, where over a field of 300 runners in each male and female division competed on the hilly and challenging 2.1 mile course.
This marks the second year in a row that both the DMS boys and girls teams qualified for the State Championship Meet.
Coming off of a 14th place team finish in 2018, the Lady Saints fought hard for an overall and much deserving 5th place team finish this season which earned them All-State Honors. Only the top 5 teams are awarded this.
The Saints boys team gave outstanding individual performances and placed 20th out of a field of 32 teams this season. They edged out West Wilson and Macon Co Jr. who had beaten them at the Regional Meet the weekend before.
With her first season of running cross country as a middle schooler, Ella Van Vranken led the Lady Saints with a 12th place overall finish and a time of 13:04, which landed her as a member of the All-State Individual Team. Mya Ruch, now a senior at DCHS was the first DeKalb Middle runner to earn this honor back in 2014, and 2015.
With Van Vranken in the top 20, the Varsity girls showed outstanding performances from their top 5 with each one placing in the top 77 of the 306 runners. Zoe Keys finishing 43rd 13:47, Katherine Knowles 64th 14:07, Mylie Phillips 14:12, Madeline Martin 77th 14:13, Sydney Polk 252nd 1636, and Maleah Ruch 259th 16:46.
In the boys Varsity race, Kaleb Spears led his team with a 61st place finish and a PR of 12:46, followed close behind by Caleb Gray 108th 13:13, Ian Colwell 124th 13:20, Cale Brown 246th 14:35, Dylan Cathey 280th 14:55, Sam Harris 314th 15:37, and Carson Tramel 329th 16:35.
In the JV race, the DMS boys and girls, some of them first time XC members, had some of their best times of the season. In a field of 134 runners, Candice Rico placed 56th 17:27, Sylvia Evans 83rd 18:33, Sadie Moore 85th 18:34, Cadence Reynolds 103rd, 19:42. The boys field consisted of 240 runners. Evan Carmichael was 146th 16:51, Ethan Spears 181st 17:32, Jackson Hodges 190th 17:52, and Mason Taylor 213th 19:31.
“The competition keeps growing and growing each year. This State Meet produced some of the fastest times that I’ve seen as a coach since 2014. This group of student-athletes rose to the occasion and left it all out on the course, It’s been amazing to watch how they mentally and physically have seen it through all season long. I saw some awesome achievements this season from each one of these runners.”