Tyner cross-country has coming-out party

photo Tyner cross country runners Alexis Reviere, left, and Malika Reviere, right, talk with teammates before a cross country meet at Heritage High School in Ringgold, Ga.

Tyner's Wikipedia page lists all of the sports that the school participates in. There is no listing for cross-country.

That should change soon.

For the first time in recent memory, the Rams are fielding a cross-country team. It has been headed by Sarah Woerner, who prepped at Ooltewah before a college career at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She's in her first year at Tyner, where she is also an assistant basketball coach, and the physical education and wellness teacher said she was approached by a couple of runners right after the school year started.

Those two runners were senior Alexis Reviere and her sister, sophomore Malika. At the first meet, those two, along with junior Vivian Smith and sophomore Alexis Wilson, were the only four runners in the lineup. They've since added junior Sharmayne Garner.

The first four team members were a part of the Tyner track team that finished third in last season's A/AA state meet. Wilson won state in the 100- and 200-meter dash, while Smith won the 300-meter hurdles and placed in the top five in the 100-meter hurdles, long jump and the pentathlon.

But this is cross-country, and the differences between an oval track and a grueling 3.1-mile run through different terrains are not lost on the team.

"The hills are probably the hardest part. That and the speed," Alexis said. "You're having to put a lot of effort into them, and they're really tough. We're going to keep doing it, though. We keep practicing, not complaining and trying to go 100 percent every day and every meet."

That was been the measure of success that Woerner has instilled in the team this season.

"We measure success by being committed and trying to get better," she said. "I tell them every race not to race other people. I want them to race themselves; to come out everyday to practice and work hard, and do their best every time out and try to do better each time out."

After being approached, Woerner wasted no time walking the hallways and working the classrooms in hopes to piecing together a full team.

"We wanted to bring something to Tyner that hadn't been done in a long time," she said. "We knew we had kids that had the talent that could go out and do something special. It took a couple of weeks, but if I saw a natural athlete in one of my classes, I was recruiting them to come out and try it."

The team had consecutive 14th place finishes at meets at Baylor and Heritage, and a 17th place result at Camp Jordan. They are looking for even better results today when the team runs a second time at Baylor, with the meet starting at 5:40 with the girls' race, but they've already learned how to be successful on the trails after experiencing previous success on the track, and expecting even better results when the 2015 track season comes in the spring.

"It's tough at first, but to get better, you have to keep trying," Malika said. "Even when your legs can't take it on these courses, you have to keep trying."

Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.

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