Photographed on Thursday, May 21, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn., Chase Sholl of the Rhea County High School track team, is a member of the 2015 Chattanooga Times Free Press Best of Preps team. The Chattanooga area will have a deep pool of track and field talent again this spring, including arguably the top overall male and female athletes in the state.
Rhea County's Chase Sholl, who won the Class AAA state decathlon championship last year, and Signal Mountain's McKenzie Ethridge, who has been a state champion sprinter since her freshman season, are again expected to contend for titles when the Spring Fling rolls around.
Both already have signed college scholarships with Southeastern Conference programs, but before they move on to the next phase of their careers, they have lofty goals to accomplish in their final prep season.
Ethridge, who has signed with Mississippi State, has one more shot at breaking former Howard star sprinter LaQuisha Jackson's state records in the 100 (11.46) and 200 (23.86) meters. Last spring, despite running on the coldest day in the 22-year history of the Spring Fling - temperatures were in the low 50s - Ethridge again swept titles with personal best times in both sprint events, an 11.88 in the 100 and a 24.64 in the 200.
"McKenzie has put all of her time and effort into her sport. She doesn't play other sports and is focused solely on being the best sprinter she can be," said Signal Mountain coach Dustin Carpenter. "I believe if she gets to the state meet and is healthy, she has a really good shot at breaking those records."
Ethridge also anchored the state championship 4x100 relay team and with Camryn Bowman, who won state titles in the shot put and discus and also returns this season, helped the Lady Eagles repeat as team champions in Class A/AA.
Sholl, who has signed with Tennessee, had a dominant start in the first day of the state decathlon last year, winning three events, finishing second in one and third in another, before a hamstring injury nearly forced him to withdraw with three events remaining. But he gutted it out for a narrow win to become the area's first state-champion decathlete since 2008.
"Winning it last year gave me a lot more confidence that I can compete with the best of the best on that top level," said Sholl, who was one of only 12 athletes invited to compete in the New Balance national pentathlon last weekend. "Already I'm miles ahead of where I was at this time last year, so hopefully that carries over and puts me miles ahead of where I was at the end of the season.
"I want to repeat, of course, but I want to see what I can do if I'm completely healthy for every event."
He had qualified also in the 200, 110 hurdles, 300 hurdles and as the anchor of the 4x100 relay team but was forced to withdraw from each of those events because of the injury suffered in the decathlon.
Arts & Sciences returns junior Lennex Walker, who won the triple jump and finished second in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles and long jump last year and was second in the pentathlon. Also, Tyner junior Alexis Wilson and Red Bank senior Elexis Foster are two of the top sprinters in the state, just behind Ethridge. Wilson was second in the 100 and fourth in the 200 last year, and Foster finished fourth in the 100 and sixth in the 200 at the state meet.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.