Liberty Creek's Jaden Hillis, Knoxville Webb's Calysta Garmer win TSSAA state cross country titles
HENDERSONVILLE ― Four runners added accolades to their athletic careers at the TSSAA state cross country championships Thursday at Sanders Ferry Park.
Races for boys and girls in Division II-AA and Class A-AA took place with no repeat champions being crowned.
Knoxville Webb sisters Calysta Garmer and Jazzlyn Garmer finished first and second, respectively, as Webb captured its second straight team state title with a score of 33.
Two runners collapse during Thursday's race
A scary scene unfolded as two runners collapsed on the course Thursday. Defending DII-AA state champ Lydia Brunner, of Father Ryan, and CPA's Nicholas Maddux were both taken away in an ambulance after receiving medical attention. Both were alert and moving before being put in the ambulance.
There have already been three school-age, Nashville area runners who have died in the past three months.
Knoxville Webb sisters go 1-2; Anderson County runner is A-AA champ
Calysta Garmer finished with a time of 17:46.55, while Jazzlyn finished as the state runner-up in a time of 17:53.37. Both improved their times at last year's state championship meet, when Jazzlyn finished fourth and Calysta seventh.
"Me and Calysta, coming into this season, we had pretty high goals for this state meet," Jazzlyn said.
"I feel like the goal was more to just do the best we could do on the day for our team because we know our team wanted to (be) state champs so we just wanted to help pull our team along and help contribute our part to the team," Calysta added.
Anderson County junior Ava Moody finished with a time of 18:17.36 to claim the Class A-AA girls race. Last season Moody finished third behind Liberty Creek's Sydney Tackett and Station Camp's Brynn Balturshot. Thursday, she eclipsed them both to capture the individual title. Balturshot took second and Tackett finished third.
Anderson County's first-year coach, Mollie Longwire, ran track and field and cross country at Lipscomb University. A college-oriented training program, including hill runs every Monday, helped prepare Moody for the state championships.
"We started a new tradition of doing hills every Monday, which I think really helped out on this course, Moody said. "The hills, I was able to pull away and I just felt way more confident in myself than in past years.
Signal Mountain won the team state championship in Class A-AA with a score of 67. Hannah Laramore led the charge for the Eagles, finishing seventh with a time of 19:06.17, while teammates Maxine Richards, Ada Boyd, Naomi Malone and Lilly Paxson all finished in the top 20.
Two boys state champions crowned
The Class A-AA boys race went down to the wire as Liberty Creek senior Jaden Willis overtook Westview's Jack Mantooth on the final straightaway to take the top spot.
Willis finished with a time of 15:43.48, while Mantooth crossed the line at 15:45.59.
"(Mantooth) made a move at the last 1K and I was like 'Okay, he's going to make a move.' He kept the move the whole time, so I kind of just sat behind him," Hillis said. "And then I sat until the last 200 meters and then I just hit the next gear and beat him at the end."
Willis shaved over a minute off his time from last season's state championship race, when he finished 15th. He credited the improvement to staying disciplined and a steady increase in his mileage since last season.
"You increase the mileage up and it really makes big gains," Hillis said. "You just got to stay consistent and do all the little things: eat, sleep. I mean, it sounds easy, but a lot of people miss it."
Central Magnet won the Class A-AA team title, with a score of 84.
Knoxville Catholic's Keegan Smith took the state title in the DII-AA boys race, improving on his third place finish at last year's state competition.
Smith finished with a time of 14:59.16, the fastest time of the day and 3.08 seconds faster than his finish last year.
Smith's first place finish along with top 15 finishes from Radek Molchan and Cade Duncanson secured Knoxville Catholic the team championship, it's first since 2016.
Harrison Campbell covers high school sports for The Daily Herald and The Tennessean. Email him at and follow him on X (formerly Twitter) .
