McMinn Central’s Dianna Eddington seemed to run with a looseness she might have been lacking in recent weeks, looking as though she might have recovered fully from ankle sprains that had slowed her during the cross country season.
Part of the reason of that looseness might have been a weight lifted off her shoulder – not from the past four years, but the next four to come.
A day after committing to run for Mississippi State University next year, Eddington won the Region 3-A/AA meet at Chickamauga Dam – her first region championship. She covered the 5-kilometer course in 21 minutes, 23.82 seconds.
“I’m excited about it, because my goal has been to run for a Division I program and I think they are going to put me over the edge,” she said. “It hasn’t been my best season, but I have to put that behind me and run, because I want to be in the top five at state.”
She has held that distinction only once, her freshman year.
Chattanooga Christian junior Cameron Anderson used a strong uphill push to defeat Signal Mountain’s Matthew Marshall in the Region 4-A/AA final for his first cross country victory.
“I just told myself it was now or never,” Anderson said. “Once I passed him, I just kept thinking he was going to come back, so I took as long of strides as I could going down the hill.
“I didn’t think I was going to win until the last little stretch of the race.”
Other winners included a trio of repeat champions in Notre Dame’s Alex Mullin, who won the girls’ Region 4-A/AA race, Bradley Central sophomore Paul Patterson in 3-AAA and Red Bank sophomore Robert Bridges in 3-A/AA.
Rhea County’s Madalyn Garland won the 3-AAA girls’ race, but just as impressive was her team taking second after losing Gloria and Lorena Pascual – their Nos. 3 and 4 runners – to a car accident recently.
“We just had a ‘no negatives’ mentality this week,” Rhea coach Steffan Holder said. “Everything had to be positive for us to pull this off, and we did it. I’m just at a loss for words right now.”
Team titles went to Cookeville’s girls and boys in 3-AAA, East Hamilton’s boys in 3-A/AA and Signal Mountain’s boys in 4-A/AA. Polk County’s girls took the 3-A/AA title, while Notre Dame prevailed in 4-A/AA.
n Georgia Region 6-A: Gordon Lee’s Camilla Loggins won the region meet at Darlington School in Rome, Ga. Loggins covered the course in 20:20.50.