St. Andrew's-Sewanee leads Invitational pack

Patsy Freeman presents awards to top winners of the John Freeman Invitational. From left are Daniel Shaver (St. Andrew's-Sewanee), Keeley Stewart (SAS), Patsy Freeman, Ellen Williams (Webb) and Jon Kinnard (Montgomery Bell Academy). (T-G Photo by Melissa Stacy) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

The much anticipated John Freeman Cross Country Invitational took place at Webb School in Bell Buckle on Wednesday evening with four schools participating.

St. Andrew's-Sewanee led the pack with first place titles from the boys and girls division.

The fastest recorded time of the day on Webb's 3-mile cross country course was by Daniel Shaver of the Mountain Lions. He dominated this course and breezed across the finish line first ahead of 55 other boys with an impressive time of 17 minutes, 19 seconds.

Montgomery Bell Academy's Jon Kinnard was nipping at his heels and placed second with a time of 17:38.

Shelbyville Central also participated and brought in their fastest runner, Daniel Lopez with a time of 20:24, which was good enough to take 27th place. Gerardo Mullins clocked a 20:47 and crossed in 29th.

SAS also boasted the fastest recorded time for a female thanks to Keeley Stewart, who had a top time of 21:17.

Ellen Williams of the Lady Feet placed second at 23:30, breaking her own personal record for the year. Williams has shown significant improvement this year as she clocked a time of 27:35 in her first race of the season.

Kasey Reed of Shelbyville placed fourth with a respectable time of 25:16.

"All of our top runners of the day shed seconds," Webb assistant coach Kelly Northrop said "off their personal records possibly due to the cloudy and cool weather conditions during race time, not to mention the anticipation of running their last seasonal race of the year. It's just easier to run when it's cooler."

Most of Webb's team returns next year.

"It's nice having so many experienced runners returning next year," Northrup said. "I just worry about them bulking up too much before next season which young men tend to do as they grow, as too much can slow a runner down."

Patsy Freeman, Memorial co-founder and mother to John Freeman, was present within the spectators and also presented trophies to the first and second place winners of both divisions.

Webb wraps up their season by competing at the state level next week.

Giffin in Cookeville: Shelbyville's top runner, Sean Giffin, wasn't able to attend the Invitational at Webb since he qualified for the Region 4-AAA meet at Cookeville High School. He finished in 18:30, placing him in 17th after passing six runners in the last half mile.

Oakland's Drew Thompson was the top runner with a time of 16:47.