The obvious, the expected and the surprising all emerged in the cross country individual region meets Thursday at the Chickamauga Dam course.

There was the obvious: Red Bank's Claire Turner, Bradley Central's Jacquelin Pitcock, Notre Dame's Alex Mullin and Sequatchie County's Dylan Harper won their respective meets. Also expected was the showing of Red Bank's Robert Bridges, who continued his solid freshman season by winning the 3-A/AA boys' meet.

But it was a fellow freshman -- Bradley's Paul Patterson -- who sent some shock waves through the crowd.

Patterson won the 3-AAA meet, finishing the five-kilometer race in 17 minutes, 38.27 seconds -- the best time of any runner participating Thursday.

"It's exhilarating," said Bears coach Larry Cotton, who admitted he didn't expect to see Patterson win Thursday. "It's tougher for a freshman boy to win, because there's a lot more for them to deal with and a lot more competition. I've had a lot of great runners, but none better than this kid.

"It's refreshing to see how this kid works. I knew something good was going to happen when he ran a 28-minute five-mile run in practice. I've never had a kid do something super in practice not show up on race day, and it's great to see his plan coming together."

Red Bank coach Hugh Enicks, whose Lady Lions took first with the Lions second in 3-A/AA, was doubly pleased to have two individual region champions.

"It's neat to see it come together," he said of a senior and a freshman winning. "As a coach, it's always nice to see the torch sort of being passed along."

It is the first time Red Bank has had both teams going to the state meet.

Notre Dame's girls and Chattanooga Christian's boys won the Region 4-A/AA races, while Cookeville swept the 3-AAA team titles.

Collegedale Academy won its fourth consecutive region boys' championship and placed third among the girls, but the Eagles and Lady Eagles will run their state race a day early -- continuing a four-year tradition -- as religious beliefs prohibit the Seventh-day Adventist school from Saturday daytime competition. Their Friday runs won't count.

"We really hope that some things change," Collegedale coach Ryan Perry said. "I've got my entire boys' team coming back next year, and I think that if they knew there was a chance we could compete at state, we'd race even better."