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All MKXC Women’s Team 2024

Carolina Areheart – Webb – JR – All Metro 1st team

3 individual wins including the Valkyrie Invitational in Louisville

7 top 5s including 2nd @ KIL, 3rd @ D2AA State

Also finished 6th @ FL South and 2nd @ NXN SE

17:02 PR @ NXN SE

Campbell Asti – West – FR – All Metro 2nd team

4 top 10s

2 top 5s including first individual win @ the Roane State All Comers Meet.

8th overall @ KIL

4th @ Region 2 AAA

45th @ State and the 5th fastest freshman

19:42 PR @ KIL

Ana Berkheimer – Hardin Valley – SO – All Metro 2nd team

This was Ana’s first season of running

3 top 10s including 9th @ KIL

2nd @ Region 2 AAA

After running a 22:55 and placing 46th at the Victor Ashe Fall Classic, finished 2nd at Regionals (dropping over 2 1/2 minutes off her first attempt at the VAP course)

28th @ State in 19:34

19:31 PR

Caitlin Daniels – Catholic – FR – All Metro 2nd team

3 top 15s

1 top 10

6th @ KIL with a PR

14th @ D2AA State the 11th fastest time amongst all freshman, improving her time from the start of the season by nearly 2 minutes.

19:19 PR

Calysta Garmer – Webb – JR – All Metro 1st team

5 top 10s

4 top 5s including 4th @ KIL and 1st @ D2AA State

17:33 PR

Jazzlyn Garmer – Webb – JR – All Metro 1st team

6 top 10s

4 top 5s including 1st @ KIL and 2nd @ D2AA State

Sub 18 in all races except for 2 (18:04 & 18:05)

Also finished 7th at both NXN SE and FL South (where she ran her PR)

17:16 PR

Drew Gerken – Catholic – FR – All Metro 1st team

6 top 10s

2 top 5s

10th @ KIL

8th @ D2AA State

Finished with the second fastest time amongst all freshman in the state

18:20 PR

Dylan Job – Oak Ridge – JR – All Metro 2nd team

3 top 5s at Norris, Cherokee, and The Mounds

1 individual win @ Mounds #1 and setting the first course record there

Also, 20th place at Southern Showcase in Huntsville

18:16 PR

Ava Moody – Anderson Co. – JR – All Metro 1st team

7 top 5’s including 3rd @ Southern Showcase in Huntsville

5 individual wins including Region 2 A/AA and State A/AA

Course record holder at The Mounds

17:38 PR

Livi Ray – Catholic – FR – All Metro 2nd team

4 top 10s

2 top 5s including 5th @ KIL

9th @ D2AA State with 4th fastest time among all freshman

18:43 PR

Emma Roberts – Maryville – SR – All Metro 1st team

7 top 10s

5 top 5s

4 wins including Blount County Championships and Region 3 AAA

20th @ State AAA

18:29 PR

Avery Jo Thomas – Heritage – JR – All Metro 2nd team

5 top 10s

3 top 5s including 2nd @ Blount Co. Championships and 2nd @ Region 3 AAA Champs.

27th @ AAA State

18:55 PR – school record

Ariana Vargas – Webb – SO – All Metro 2nd team

3 top 10s including 7th @ KIL

15th @ D2AA State

Finished 5th overall in the freshman/sophomore race @ Footlocker South

19:15 PR

Alexandra Vesser – Hardin Valley – SO – All Metro 1st team

3 top 5s including 3rd @ KIL and 1st @ Region 2 AAA

19th @ AAA State

She lead her team to a 2nd Place finish @ KIL, 1st place @ Region, and a 5th Place @ State

18:29 PR

by Coach Ed Wright

Hall of Fame 2024: Coach Sam Roberts

Tonight you’ll get to hear from the two men besides my dad who have had the most influence on my life: Jim McNamee, a Hall of Famer with 9 state titles to his resume, who handed me the best athletic program in the history of Oak Ridge High School, who coached me as a teenager and who mentored and inspired me as a track and cross country coach, and who gave me the room to take it where I wanted to go, and Sam Roberts, who I am here to introduce as our 2024 Hall of Fame coach. So rarely do we get the opportunity to publicly acknowledge the people who help make us who we are.

Sam has all the credentials you’d want for this coaching award: 9 times his athletes at West won state xc titles, he won boys and girls state team titles and a state track title. He coached more than 60 state champions, had more than 50 NCAA scholarship athletes, and coached athletes to state records in the 1600 and 3200. He coached the first Tennessee girl to qualify for footlocker and assisted at oak ridge when we became the first tn team to qualify for nxn. He was part of the only coaching staff ever to coach both boys and girls state team champions in AAA, in 2007. He went on to coach national level sprinters, jumpers, and distance runners at TN Wesleyan. All of that says that he’s a really good running coach, and he is. He’s as good as anyone I’ve ever seen anywhere, particularly at teaching athletes how to compete. He’s also the best teacher of technique that I’ve ever known. He sees it and can communicate it really well. More importantly, though, he’s one of the best human beings I’ve ever known: honest, good-humored, humble when he needs to be, aware of his commitment to excellence. It’s really hard for a coach to put his family first, and I was not very good at doing that, but Tammy, Haden, Haley, and Copeland were always the center of his world even more so than his teams and athletes were. His priority was always his family and people over performance. And yet, he’s affected so many people in track and field and cross country and in his church over the last 34-years that any number of people could stand up here and talk about how he’s changed their lives. I happen to be the person who gets to do that. Sam is the greatest friend I’ve had during my lifetime and is one of the best ever to have coached. Congratulations.

by Coach Allen Etheridge