BRISTOL, Tenn. – It was a good day for longtime Abingdon coach Don Cumbow.
“Because [the runners] feel good about it,” he said, taking refuge from Saturday’s torrential rains under a small grouping of pine trees.
Good is all relative, and despite the constant downpour that turned the Steele Creek course into a muddy quagmire, his girls team, led by freshman Madison Turner’s second-place finish, edged out Science Hill 32-39 in the girls championship race.
It was more than Turner’s finish that made it a good day. It’s what took place behind her that made all the difference.
With Science Hill freshman Molly Foster leaving the pack behind her from the start, Falcon twins Kensie and Maddie Skeens sandwiched teammate Chelsea Thrasher into the chute for third-, fourth- and fifth-place finishes.
“I’m pretty sure we got second,” Turner said, still unsure of how the Falcons placed. “But I really hope we got first.”
Turner’s personal battle with Foster didn’t last as long. With Foster blazing right off the starting gun, she poked out to quick lead with Turner keeping pace until the two-mile mark.
“Then she just took off,” Turner said.
Abingdon’s pack would give the freshman a measure of redemption and, when Abingdon’s fifth runner, Maggie Knox, crossed the line in 12th, the team win was never in doubt.
When the final team scores were released after the boys championship race, Abingdon’s win became official.
“They ran in a pack today,” Cumbow said. “The pack is good if it’s up near the front.”
Science Hill, after putting Samantha Gosey and Martha McCoy across the finish line in third and fourth, wouldn’t have another runner exit the course until 15th place. By that time the Falcons’ top five were all eating apples – a meet tradition – and cooling down.
Abingdon also got a second-place finish in the boys race from George Tolton, who finished seven seconds behind University’s Carter McVeigh in the boys championship race despite the conditions.
“You go up hill and you’re sliding,” Tolton said. “Then you’d sink into the mud.”
The boys finished second in the team race with 46 points, four behind Bearden.
Tennessee High’s boys finished fourth overall with 96 points coming from Andre Blow (ninth, 18:31.48), Doni McCarthy (15th, 19:15.37), Greg Hanson in 20th, Matt Gaskins in 23rd and Glen Hanson coming in the 29th slot. Behind the Vikings were Daniel Boone (132), David Crockett (149), Dobyns-Bennett (168) and Sullivan South (243).
Tennessee’s girls came in ninth place of the girls race with 195 points with Chessney Rice as its best finisher in 33rd place.
With Krista McCray (second place, 21:09) leading the way, Patrick Henry picked up a win in the girls small school race with 44 points, finishing well ahead of second-place South Greene’s 104 points. Gate City came in third with 107. John Battle’s Mariah Arnold’s 20:53 got her the individual gold.
Marion edged out Galax with a 71-91 win in the boys small school race, with Elizabethton’s David Laporte’s 17:40 pacing the field.
As he watched the last batch of middle school races, Cumbow, still under the trees in a futile attempt to stay dry, said this meet was just another step in preparing his Falcons for next month’s Southwest District meet and the region and state meets that will follow.
“The meet today gave all our kids the understanding that we can race under bad conditions,” he said. “And there haven’t been any worse than today.”
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