Beeler misses turn, but backtracks to win
By Steve Williams
Evan Beeler momentarily lost his lead when he bypassed the turn to the homestretch in the Region 2 Class AAA Cross Country Meet Wednesday at Victor Ashe Park.
Fortunately, the Farragut senior realized he was going the wrong way and made up his lost time to win the 5,000-meter race.
But, as he admitted afterward, “I had a huge panic there for a second.”
There’s a split where the course leads the harriers down to the finish chute and the final 200 meters or so to the finish line. Beeler missed that turn and had to backtrack.
“Josh Hunt (Hardin Valley runner) was behind me and I started going to the left (at the split) and he started going to the right, so for a little bit there he was in front of me,” recalled Beeler.
“Immediately,” said Evan, he realized what he had done. “I went so fast just to catch him again, I was worried sick.”
It was “only a maximum of three seconds” he later figured he had lost. But there have been many races lost in less than three seconds.
After word got out of what happened in the AAA race, that area was monitored for A-AA races, including the top and bottom of the hill, said one coach.
Beeler now has his attention on helping Farragut win a third straight TSSAA state championship.
“That’s been our big goal for the whole season,” he said.
Farragut, Hardin Valley and Brentwood are considered the leading contenders for the state title, which will be decided this week at the Sanders Ferry Park course in Hendersonville.
Beeler and senior teammate Tanner Coggin finished 1-2 in the region meet, with Beeler timed in 16:01.49 and Coggin in 16:04.90. Both said they bettered their PR on the course by 30 to 40 seconds.
“We’ve just been training really hard and focusing on getting big distances,” said Evan. “And we’ve grown as we’ve gotten older and faster.”
HVA’s Hunt (16:05.82) and Gabe Allen (16:12.34) placed third and fourth, respectively.
Other members of Farragut’s region title team were Ross Tootle, Sam Shagan and Jase Morton. Runner-up Hardin Valley’s team also included Cooper McKaig, Sean Brown and Aiden Rufi.
The Admirals totaled 37 points, HVA 41 and Oak Ridge (86) to advance to state.
Individual state qualifiers were sixth and seventh place finishers Rowen Moser-Bryan of Karns and Nicholas Burke of West, respectively, plus Barrett Lemons of Central, Rylan Moser-Bryan of Karns and Parson Campen of Central.
S-D’s Askey and L&N qualify for A-AA state
South-Doyle senior Ethan Askey qualified for the A-AA state meet with a 10th place finish in a time of 18:30.52 in the 5K event.
Askey said he just started running cross country last year as a junior.
“I didn’t expect to place this high, but have a decent finish,” said Ethan.
He said he “enjoys it” but doesn’t plan to run in college, except maybe in intramurals.
His future plans are to go into Nursing at ETSU or TTU.
L&N STEM Academy placed fourth to qualify for state. The Gryphons were led by junior Connor Arnold, who was timed in 18:45.95. Teammates include freshman Jacob Taylor, junior Koli York, senior Jeremiah Jones and senior Jameson Neubauer.
Alcoa won the A-AA team title (51), followed by Anderson County (55), Cumberland County (63) and L&N (92).
Zachariah Ostrander of Cumberland County won the A-AA race in 16:25.48.
