Rain, sleet or snow, the Tippecanoe girls' cross country runners were going to enjoy their trip to Chattanooga over the weekend. It turns out there was a lot of rain, but there was still plenty for the team to enjoy.
The Dayton, Ohio, school dominated the Cross Country Festival Saturday at Chickamauga Dam. They finished with five of the top six place finishers and had a final score of 15 points.
Thompson High from Alabama won the boys' team title, with Alex Coleman winning individually in a time of 17 minutes, 47.89 seconds in the five-kilometer run. Tippecanoe's Allison Sinning was the girls' champion, finishing in 20:20.40.
Tippecanoe is ranked third in Ohio in Division II.
"We have a really strong team this year and we hope we make it to state," Sinning said. "My job on the team is to be the top runner and to be in the top three, but our pack is good. We came down here to see how we'd do in a different state, and I thought we ran well."
Tippecanoe coach Byron Kimmel said he found out about the race on the Milesplit.us website and decided it was a good trip for "camaraderie." The contingent had plans of exploring Chattanooga on Saturday before leaving this morning.
"I thought we ran well for the conditions," he said. "In our training cycle, this was a peak week for miles, so it was more of a road trip for us."
The Heritage girls finished second, and the McCallie boys -- using primarily junior varsity runners -- were fourth. Heritage's Judd Bates was the top individual area boys' finisher, taking fourth in 18:05.98, while the home-school team's Karla Vradenburgh was the top area girls' finisher, seventh in 21:35.46.
n The Baylor boys and Signal Mountain girls won the Silver Division of the Tennessee Classic at Percy Warner Park in Nashville. The Red Raiders finished with 51 points -- nearly half of their nearest competitor, University School of Nashville.
The Lady Eagles defeated GPS by a score of 53-81, and Baylor's girls were third with 94 points. Signal's Mallory Young was second individually in 20:35.30, while Baylor's Grace Carlson was fourth in 20:57.10 and GPS's Lucy Whitfield was sixth in 21:06.60.
Bradley Central's Harold Smith was second in the Gold Division in 16:29.50. Baylor's John Carlson was the top boys' finisher in the Silver Division, finishing third in 17:30.90.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6311. Follow him at Twitter.com/genehenleytfp.