OAKVILLE-- Coach Stan Johnson, DeWayne Keys, and the Jesse Owens runners club have established a reputation in Alabama and the surrounding states for hosting the best meets in the Southest. On Saturday, October 5, they lived up to that reputation with the 4th Annual Jesse Owens Classic.
Held at the Oakville Indian Mounds Park & Museum, the JOC featured 8 races with 2200 registered runners from 86 teams representing the states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Schools came from Huntsville, Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Mobile, Phenix City, Memphis, Chattanooga, Starkville, Oxford, and many more. Yet the meet, as always, was conducted smoother than the New York Philharmonic.
In the Bronze Division (1A-3A), Altamont eighth-grader Elisabeth Molen held an early lead to take first in 20:00. Following Molen was Hatton junior Mamie Rutherford in 20:13 and Pleasant Valley freshmen twins Brittany and Bridgett Green, both in 20:20.
The Silver Division saw Hamilton's Emily Harden take first place with a time of 20:13 and Gaiting Kara of Austin out-pace defending silver division champion Cyrus Wakaba of Oxford, MS. Kara, who was hoping to break 16:10 after his 16:19 performance in Scottsboro a week ago, bettered his time by 10 seconds to win in 16:09. Chris Patrick, the reigning 6A state champion in the indoor and outdoor 800m finished third with a time around 16:50.
The last races of the day, the Gold Division, were proclaimed "The Best of the Best" regardless of school size or classification. The girls' race started with senior Joy Griffith of 1A American Christian Academy taking an early lead over Tara Lenn, Jennifer Thompson, and Tara Enebak from St. Paul's, Arab, and Auburn, respectively. Griffith held her lead well through the mile mark, which she and the leaders cross right around 6:00. By the half mark of the race, Lenn had overtaken Griffith and begin to open what turned out to be a 10-second winning margin. Lenn's time of 18:15 was an 17-second improvement on Enebak's previous state-leading time of 18:32. However, Griffith also bettered this time as she finished in 18:26 to take second. She was followed by Thompson (18:36) and Enebak (18:59). After a runner from Houston, TN, took 5th, Emry McKay, Jill Bryant, Laurel Pritchard, Elizabeth Wancowitz, and Brooke Deason were the next Alabama runners, taking places sixth through tenth. Houston, TN won the team competition with the next in-state teams being Mountain Brook in second and Scottsboro in third.
The Gold Division boys' race was an event no less than historic and just short of legendary. Hoover's Phillip Moore opened a sizeable lead on the field within the first quarter mile, the next runner thirty meters back and distinct packs trailing in ten meter intervals. By the race's half-point, a trio of Hoover runners had moved up to the front of the top pack of runners chasing their harrier teammate. Michael Brown, Robert Bedsole, and Jamie Oliver battled John Brigham, Kenan Lucas, Ryan Lenaghan, and Chris Calkins for second place while Sam Nuckols slowly moved up from a comfortable distance, picking off a dozen runners every hundred yards.
When the leaders approached the last half mile of the race, Bedsole, Brown, and Oliver had only gained slightly on Moore and were still fighting with Brigham for position. They were closely trailed by Calkins, Nuckols, and Wade Martin. As they poured around the final horseshoe loop and spilled into the finishing chute, it was Moore holding off Oliver and Bedsole for a close first, second, and third place finish. Brown held off a strong finishing surge from Nuckols to complete the 1-4 Buccaneer sweep. Nuckols, Brigham, and Martin took fifth, sixth, and seventh before Scott Novack flew infront of Calkins to take eighth and complete Hoover's incredible scoring quintet.
Since only Brigham managed to break up the group of Hoover runners as a member of a scoring team, Novack's eighth-place finish was scored as sixth, giving Hoover an incredible team score of 16-- just one away from the perfectly elusive FIFTEEN. The team's average time was 16:02, as Moore hit 15:55, Oliver and Bedsole 15:56 and 16:01, Brown 16:03, and Novack 16:12. The performance was the most dominant in Gold Division history, since the meet was started in 1999. Hoover finished 7th at the nationally-competitive Great American Classic last weekend and should appear in regional and national rankings after their performance at Jesse Owens.