John Hunt Park, the location of Southern Showcase, is considered by some to be the fastest course in the country. It’s relatively flat path, along with a gradual downhill towards the finish, contributes to that opinion. However, even the course’s proponents will admit that it’s only perfect in absolutely perfect weather. Combine a recently resodded surface with the remnants of Hurricane Francine, and you have a mudbath for 2000+ people to trample on.
2000 people?! Yeah, Southern Showcase is the largest meet in the state of Alabama. In addition to virtually every large team from Alabama attending, many schools from Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee attend as well. Chickasaw, the race last week, was split into Varsity A and B. Southern Showcase, by contrast, is split into four divisions: Championship, Blue, Crimson, and Gray – in descending order of speed (mostly, there are plenty of instances in which many of the championship runners are significantly slower than runners from other divisions). The top varsity boys were entered into the Blue race, the next into the Crimson race, and the remaining into the Gray. Like last week, the JV will not be separated. By the time they ran, entire sections of the course were ruined and muddy.
The Results
Blue Race 5K
Place, Name and Grade – Time
33. Roman Hanson (10) – 17:21.14
87. Jake Bryan (11) – 17:56.85
118. Owen Johnston (10) – 18:11.34
124. Eric Joy (12) – 18:14.08
152. Owen Lang (12) – 18:25.70
297. Jacob Sigler (12) – 19:34.41
Total Runners: 412
Team Scores
Place, Team – Points, Average
13. Liberty Creek (TN) – 483, 18:01
14. Bob Jones – 486, 18:01
15. DeSoto Central (MS) – 514, 18:05
Total Teams: 58
WEATHER: Dreary and muddy, high 60s. WIND: ~10 Mph
Analysis:
Overall, this is an underwhelming result for the “A” team. Only Hanson and Johnston ran times that were close to their previous races. It isn’t the end of the world, though – almost everyone who ran in this race, and this meet at large, ran either slightly or significantly slower than they did at Chickasaw or whichever race they ran previously. For example, one Florence High runner ran nearly two minutes slower at Southern Showcase than he did at Chickasaw. Yikes.
Crimson Race 5K
Place, Name and Grade – Time
212. Caleb Cooke (10) – 20:39.76
213. Sawyer Andrews (11) – 20:40.26
235. Alex Horn (11) – 20:55.11
271. Conrado Jocson (12) – 21:23.19
284. Stephen Hall (12) – 21:34.83
Total Runners: 445
Team Scores
Place, Team – Points, Average
39. Oak Ridge (TN) – 1080, 20:56
40. Bob Jones – 1118, 20:59
41. Northridge – 1156, 21:20
Total Teams: 59
WEATHER: Dreary and very muddy, low 70s. WIND: ~9 mph
Analysis
This wasn’t as disastrous as the performance of the Blue race, but it wasn’t great either. Like with the Blue runners, most of the times in this race as a whole were much slower than last week. Cooke and Andrews PR’d, but that was almost out of formality, for Andrews had never run a 5K before and this was Cooke’s first 5K healthy.
Gray Race 5K
Place, Name and Grade – Time
92. Bowen Caves (12) – 21:47.01
160. Pedro Henriquez (10) – 23:28.36
191. Daniel Isabor (12) – 24:37.75
193. Carson Drake (11) – 24:40.58
198. Thomas Signler (12) – 24:59.46
213. Apaulo Crandall (11) – 26:10.33
Total Runners: 254
Team Scores
Place, Team – Points, Average
22. DAR – 574, 24:06
23. Bob Jones – 599, 23:54
24. Liberty Creek (TN) – 604, 23:48
Total Teams: 27
WEATHER: Dreary and very muddy, low 70s. WIND: ~8mph
Analysis
Overall, a relatively solid result for the Gray team given the conditions. Caves’ time is especially good.
JV Boys 2-mile Results
Place, Name Grade and School – Time
18. Micah Meeker (8, JMS) – 12:08.19
21. Chase Lehmann (8, DMS) – 12:13.14
23. Bowen Hughes (8, DMS) – 12:18.54
49. Davis Joy (8, DMS) – 12:56.51
53. James White (9) – 13:07.20
54. Dean Charman (7, DMS) – 13:08.17
56. Brooks van Dam (9) – 13:10.65
68. Clayton Burns (9) – 13:34.12
74. Nathan Schultz (7, DMS) – 13:43.10
79. Dean Moss (9) – 13:57
106. Holland Lang (9) – 14:35.49
119. Sean Osterhout (7, JMS) – 14:53.91
121. Jack Sanders (7, DMS) – 14:55.77
125. Will Tennille (7. DMS) – 15:11.18
141. Brody Dunham (9) – 15:59.58
145. Luke Thornton (9) – 16:09.79
157. Korbin Bourgeois (7, DMS) – 16:59.40
166. Jack Johnston (7, JMS) – 20:00+
Total Runners: 168
Team Scores
Place, Team – Points, Average
1. Huntsville – 15, 10:57
2. Berry (Hoover) – 72, 12:06
3. Bob Jones – 114, 12:36
4. Station Camp (TN) – 127, 12:38
WEATHER: Dreary and extremely muddy, low 70s. WIND: ~8 mph
Total Teams: 13
The JV beat Section rivals Grissom by 70 points, and Florence by 123; they almost beat a middle school that feeds into Hoover High School. Safe to say that those results speak for themselves. Let’s go JV!
End of Results
As for the overall winner, Luke Alverson of James Clemens ran an astounding 14:49 in the Championship race. That’s less than 20 seconds off of the State Record, and he ran that on a muddy course.
