A total of 14 different teams with over 400 runners made their way to Brewton Middle School Saturday morning for the T.R. Miller Challenge cross country race.
Along with T.R. Miller, the Tigers were joined by Andalusia, Fairhope, Flomaton, Gulf Breeze, Jay, LAMP, Milton, Oak Grove, Opp, Pensacola Christian, Tate, UMS-Wright and Montgomery Catholic.
The teams ran in four races Saturday with the varsity girls running first followed by the varsity boys, JV girls and JV boys.
T.R. Miller cross country head coach Rob Atkinson said he thought the meet went well Saturday.
“The whole meet could have not went much better I don’t think,” Atkinson said. “It was an outstanding meet. It will get bigger and better as time goes on. So far, all the feedback we have received, has been nothing but good things. We have been really pleased at the way everything turned out today. I want to say thanks to all the parents who helped. We had an array of volunteers out here today. We had a lot of support. Without all the help, none of this would have happened.”
As for the race, T.R. Miller’s girls came in second place out of nine teams while the boys took eighth place out of 11 teams. Although the JV girls did not run as a team, the JV boys took third place out of four teams.
“Our runners competed really well today,” Atkinson said. “I was really impressed with our top-3 or 4 girls today. They ran extremely well. The boys ran a hard race. I have not had a chance to look at all the results yet, but I thought we ran well and competed well today.”
In the varsity girls race, Katie Nelson finished first overall with a time of 19:38.08. Nelson’s time earned her a national silver standard performance.
Allie Nelson was fourth overall with a time of 20:40.79 and Karisa Nelson took sixth overall with a time of 21:04.98.
Kelsi Lum ran a time of 23:31.26 for 18th overall while Amber Terry finished 33rd overall with a time of 24:30.52. Auburn Schoonover placed 43rd overall for the Lady Tigers with a time of 25:55.87 while Morgan Rowell finished with a time of 27:39.92 for 63rd place. Shelby Evans rounded out the T.R. Miller girls with a time of 27:51.12 for 66th place.
For the T.R. Miller boys, Christian Carlson was the first Tiger to come across the finish line with a time of 18:20.33 for eighth place overall.
Travis Carlson finished with a 33rd place overall finish with a time of 19:58.60 while Dillon Simmons ran a time of 20:39.10 for 47th place.
Micah Flores finished in 71st place with a time of 22:06.05 while Stewart Campbell ran a time of 22:29.65 for 73rd overall.
Noah Morris finished in 77th place with a time of 22:46.38 and Walker Harris ran a time of 23:12.61 for 83rd place.
Nash Diercks finished in 85th place with a time of 23:20.29 while Gavin McNeil ran a time of 23:30.28 for 88th place.
In the JV girls race, T.R. Miller had four total runners compete. Sarah Byrd led the way with a first place overall finish with a time of 15:41.75. Kennedy Harp finished in second place overall with a time of 16:00.13.
McKenna Gleaton ran a time of 16:37.46 for an 11th place finish while Carmen Knowles took 22nd overall with a time of 18:11.53.
In the JV boys race, Tucker McDaniel led the way with a 15th place overall finish and a time of 13:44.96.
Tanner McDaniel ran a time of 14:41.11 for 26th overall and Sam Terry placed 28th overall with a time of 14:46.84.
Noah Winton, Rider Jernigan and Garrett Cave rounded out the Tigers with finishes of 38th, 42nd and 43rd places respectively.
Winton ran a time of 15:41.48 while Jernigan ran a time of 16:46.41. Cave ran a time of 16:53.57.