- Athletics
HENDERSONVILLE -- You could argue that McCallie cross country won a sixth straight TSSAA Division II Class AA state title, albeit with one very big asterisk.
The Blue Tornado actually tied official champ Knoxville Catholic with 62 points each over the rolling Sanders Ferry Park course, but per TSSAA tiebreaker rules, the Irish’s sixth runner -- only a school’s top five count in the team score -- finished ahead of the sixth McCallie runner, which handed the title to someone other than the Blue Tornado for the first time since 2019.
As he has the previous two state meets, Jack Bowen -- who’ll sign a scholarship with the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill on Wednesday, November 13 -- finished second overall, losing to Catholic’s Keegan Smith. In a sport in which the top 15 individual finishers are awarded All-State status, McCallie’s Henry Edwards (10th) and Henry Webb (15th) joined Bowen in receiving that honor.
“It’s tough,” said first-year head coach Rodney Stoker, who succeeded longtime coach Mike Wood during the offseason. “We tied at 62 but their No. 6 finished better than our No. 6, so we’re officially second. But I’m so proud of all of them. How they carry themselves. How much fun they have together. And I do like their growth. How much better they got through the year. Six of the guys will be back. We’ll have another strong team next year.”
A fully healthy McCallie team from start to finish might have generated a different outcome. But Edwards had to battle a bout with Covid less than six weeks ago, and Ian Jacobs got mononucleosis at roughly the same time. Both competed -- Jacobs finished 31st -- but they missed weeks of practice time over the final half of the season.
Still, they put up an incredible fight to earn the 62-all tie before the five-time defending champs were done in by the tiebreaker.
“I gave a really good effort,“ said Bowen, who’s also McCallie’s student council president, after running 15:09. “The whole team did. The effort, not whether you win or lose, is what’s important. Even when we lose, we’re still a team.”
Like Bowen, Edwards is a senior. Unlike Bowen, he hasn’t yet picked a college, but he has thought about how much he appreciates his time on the cross country team.
“It’s almost like a family,” he said. “The coaches have made such a huge impact on my life. They took time to develop me as an athlete and a person and I’m so grateful to them.”
While Bowen and Edwards have run their last cross country state meet, Webb and Taylor Combs will be seniors next year.
“We’ve got a good group coming back, said Webb. “We should have a chance to win it next year.”
Added Combs, who finished 18th to teammate John Roe’s 17th, “We’ll be good again next year. We’ve got a really good junior class.”
- Athletics