Baylor’s Tenley Godfrey waited a year to get back on the cross country circuit.
Saturday, she came out like a caged animal.
Godfrey, who missed the 2009 season with a stress fracture, ran away from the PowerAde Invitational field on Moccasin Bend, finishing the 5-kilometer event in 19 minutes, 26 seconds – 42 seconds than the closest competitor. Her time was the 13th fastest time in the history of the competition.
The senior, who transferred from Connecticut before last year, was coming off a second-place finish at the Berry Invitational last weekend. She ran a 5:46 in the first mile and built a sizable advantage, cruising the rest of the way.
“It was a tough race because of the heat,” she said. “I didn’t expect to run a personal best, but I wanted to build on last week’s performance. I usually try to start slow, then build up, but obviously I came out and ran hard from the start.”
Equally impressive was the performance of the Baylor girls’ team. The Lady Red Raiders finished with 34 points – claiming four of the top eight spots – and defeated second-place Ravenwood by 51 points. Allatoona was third and Brentwood High School fourth, with Brentwood Academy and Dalton tying for fifth with 153 points.
Bearden won the boys’ event with 62 points, outdistancing second-place Brentwood High by 12 points. Oakland, which had the top two individual finishers, was third with 101 points. The Patriots’ Brock Baker won the individual title with a time of 16:25, defeating teammate and training partner Connor Thompson by 22 seconds.
Baylor coach Heather Ott was pleased with her squad’s individual and combined performances.
“Obviously, I have to be pleased with our effort,” she said. “We wanted to use this race to get more tough-minded and race better mentally. I was satisfied with their being mentally tough. We knew nobody was going to set personal records, so we couldn’t use the times as a measure of success. We chose to use their effort.
“All of them, top to bottom, did a good job of trying to focus their way through the tough patches of a distance race.”
Sarah Hencke was fifth, Ruthie Townsend eighth and Haley Chandler ninth for Baylor. St. Andrew’s-Sewanee’s Keeley Stewart was sixth and Dalton’s Carina Nieto seventh.
There were two area finishers in the top 10 for the boys. Baylor’s Simon Holden finished eighth in 17:22, a place behind Bradley Central’s Paul Patterson, whose time was 17:14.
“I don’t go for top 10. I go for the win,” said Patterson, who had been battling sickness. “I knew I wasn’t going to run too well, because in practice I couldn’t breathe, but I knew I was going to run today and try to do my best.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com or (423) 757-6311.