McCallie, Baylor, Patriots pace Front Runner meet

McCallie and Baylor’s girls extended their win streaks in the annual Front Runner Area Championships for high school cross country with dominating team performances Thursday on the Baylor campus, and the CSTHEA home-school program provided both individual winners.

CSTHEA’s Meg Martz ran the 5-kilometer course in 18 minutes, 41 seconds to earn the girls’ title and lead the Patriots to a second-place finish behind Baylor, 41 points to 79, followed by Signal Mountain with 91, Chattanooga Christian with 100 and Girls Preparatory School with 102 in the 27-school event.

Baylor had five finishers under 21 minutes in winning the Front Runner varsity girls’ race for the fourth year in a row — Helen Webb (18:59), Emmy Davis (19:35), Hannah Rosser (19:58), Janie Pippenger and Addison Johnson — and had the top five in the junior varsity race for a perfect 15 score.

While the Patriots’ Chase Faudi was winning the boys’ 5k, McCallie had five runners in the top 11 — and within 36 seconds of each other: John Arrowsmith (16:04), Dylan Zeller (16:13), Samuel Ligon (16:18), Duke Richey (16:23) and Benjamin Niehaus (16:40). It was the Blue Tornado’s sixth straight Front Runner title, and they had six of the top eight in the JV race.

The Tornado varsity totaled 30 points to 54 for runner-up Chattanooga Christian, with Signal Mountain at 102 and CSTHEA fourth at 122. Cleveland, Silverdale, Bradley Central, Rhea County, Notre Dame and Sequatchie County completed the top 10.

Just last Saturday in Tallahassee, McCallie was eighth in the elite division of the Florida State Invitational with more than 70 schools. Ligon led the Tornado there in 16:16, two seconds ahead of Zeller and Arrowsmith, and Richey and Niehaus clocked 16:47 and 16:57.