Vikings team up to conquer Randy Smith Classic

Cross country can be a lonely sport.

As the pack separates throughout a race, a runner’s only companion on the merciless hills is often simply the sound of her own shoes pounding out a steady rhythm on the dirt.

Solitude, though, wasn’t a concern for the Tennessee High girls Thursday afternoon at Sugar Hollow Park as they competed in the three-mile Randy Smith Classic hosted by John Battle.

As they made their second pass across the top of the park’s towering grassy dam near the midpoint of the race, three Vikings — Macy Carrier, Jennifer Cannon and Michelle Smith — ran bunched together tighter than a sisterhood of traveling spandex.

"It pushes us," Carrier said about her team’s intentional all-for-one-and-one-for-all strategy. "It motivates us."

While Carrier pulled ahead of her teammates in the second half of the race on her way to a seventh-place individual finish in 20:45.57, the trio of Vikings all turned in top-15 times as Tennessee High won its first team title of the season, topping Patrick Henry 72 to 89 with Sullivan Central coming in third.

More than 700 runners from six middle schools and 34 high schools competed in Thursday’s races.

Carrier and Smith exchanged giddy high-fives upon hearing the news of their team win, proving that you need an "us" to go along with the "I’s" in order to be v-i-c-t-o-r-i-o-u-s.

"We were together," Smith said.

While not as tightly bunched, the Tennessee High boys also reaped the benefits of a deep stable of runners as the Vikings won the boys team title with three top-15 finishers in Andre Blow (third), Evan Huvane (12th) and Mackay Pierce (14th), finishing just ahead of Lebanon and John Battle.

Other than the Tennessee High trio, the usual loneliness reigned in the girls’ race.

Lebanon junior Tabby Arwood blew away the field with a time of 19:00.52 to win the individual title by more than a minute as her red uniform popped up on the landscape as if it were an empty radar screen suddenly registering an oncoming missile.

The next finisher, John Battle senior Mariah Arnold (20:16.72), was well ahead of Sullivan Central’s Emily Williams (20:27.33) in third place, who in turn had her spot locked up by more than 12 seconds over Deanna Hedgepeth of George Wythe before the field tightened up.

Arnold, who was one of only two Battle girls to compete, said running alone can be tough.

"At first I was trying to stay with [Arwood], but then we split up and so I just went at my own pace and tried to push myself as much as I could," she said. "It’s hard when you’re by yourself."

One bit of respite for the solitary runners, though, was the spectator-friendly layout of the venerable course at Sugar Hollow, which for more than 30 years has taken competitors down and back up the dam and through a patch of woods before ending in an open field, all of which offers onlookers plenty of glimpses at the blur of school colors flying by.

"It gets me psyched up and helps me go faster," Arwood said about the crowd support.

But Arwood said she prefers to grab an early advantage and run all by her lonesome out in the lead.

"I get mentally down if I don’t," she said.

Third-place girls finisher Williams said she has to tell herself to "just keep plugging" when she finds herself alone on the course.

"It’s much more difficult to be in between two places," she said.

The boys’ race was much tighter overall than the girls’ run, with Lebanon winner Jon Ulrich bidding his time in the front pack before making a pass of Mountain Mission’s D.J. Workneh to take the lead for the first time as they exited the woods in the third mile.

Ulrich, who stood out from the pack in flashy purple Nikes with green laces, said he usually takes a more conservative approach in the early stages of the race before looking to move up front when he can.

"I was just trying to gain on him the whole way," Ulrich said about his mid-race battle with Workneh, who ended up in fourth. "Any time I could pass him, that was a good place to do it."

Ulrich finished in 16:32.82, comfortably ahead of his Pioneer teammate Brad Rasnake who got second in 16:40.46.

It was Ulrich’s second victory of the season, but his first since missing two weeks earlier in September after suffering a stress fracture in his right foot.

"I wanted to catch him, but as long as we win that’s all that matters," Rasnake said about finishing behind his teammate. "Second place hurts, but as long as it’s Jon, it’s all right."

Tennessee High’s Blow was the top Viking, coming in next with a time of 16:43.94.

Like Ulrich, Blow said he also kicked into high gear late in the race, especially when he could enjoy a downhill stretch.

"I was flying down like a landslide," he said.

 nhubbard@bristolnews.com | Twitter: @Hubbard_BHCSprt | (276) 645-2543