Lee University has a long tradition of championships in a number of sports, but a relative newcomer to the success recently earned the Cleveland school's first official Gulf South Conference title.
That was men's cross country, and the women finished second at the same meet. Both fall teams and men's and women's track and field are coached by Caleb Morgan, a Cleveland native who's only four years removed from being a record-setting Flames runner himself. The first Lee male ever to qualify for the NAIA national indoor track met, he was a four-year team captain who helped coach his teammates.
"This is something I always wanted to do," the 28-year-old Morgan said before taking seven men and seven women to the NCAA Division II South regional meet being held Saturday morning at St. Leo, Fla., near Tampa. "I always was close to all my coaches and wanted to learn as much as possible."
That goes back to his time under Jason Parks at Ocoee Middle School and Walker Valley High School, where Gary Baird was another coach. Morgan ran at Lee for Don Jayroe, who was in his 60s. When Morgan became Jayroe's successor, it was a difference of four decades.
After graduating from Lee, Morgan taught elementary physical education at Arts & Sciences in Chattanooga. In his second year there, he became an assistant coach at Lee during the fall, and by the spring season he was the head coach. The short time since has included 21 All-American honors for Flames and Lady Flames, including two Christian college national champions in the men's 4x800 relay, the women's indoor 800-meter champion (Cayce Bryan) in 2014 and the men's 10,000 outdoor champ (Seth Eagleson) last spring, when Harold Smith was the 800 runner-up and two teammates joined him in the top eight.
The Lee men are ranked second and the Lady Flames fourth in the latest cross country region rankings, so both have good chances of advancing past Saturday's regional as top-three finishers to the Division II national meet. St. Leo is the men's No. 1 region team, and Morgan is looking forward to the match.
"Our men were No. 1 most of the season. It's going to be a very good race, I think," he said. "We don't have to win it, but that's one of our goals for this year, and we've reached the rest of them so far."
The men have been doing 8-kilometer races and the women have been running 5ks, but the regional and national meets are 10k and 6k events, and Morgan thinks his teams are prepared for the slightly longer distances. It might be a plus, in fact, for Eagleson, who has battled good friend and fellow sophomore Smith for team leadership throughout the season.
Smith is from nearby Bradley Central High School, but Eagleson is from Indiana. Like many of Morgan's cross country and now track and field athletes, he was swayed by Lee's reputation for academics, its Christian environment and Morgan's success in greatly improving the runners' times - and minimizing injuries. In his three years as head coach, his athletes have totaled only two stress fractures and a torn labrum.
Times show that his top duo is the best one-two punch of male runners at any university in Tennessee.
Other guys on the trip to Florida are seniors Terris Elliott and Camden Perez, junior Brandon Raleigh and freshmen Davis Moore and Gus Whitman. Whitman is from Chattanooga Christian.
Senior Jessica Childers and sophomore Audrey Smith (no relation to Harold), are the leaders of the Lady Flames contingent, which also includes fast-rising senior Erin Fondren and freshmen Amy Carpenter, Lacey Duvall, Logan Hernandez and Savannah Ratcliff.
Lee has become the South's top Division II alternative to D-I's Lipscomb and Liberty in attracting runners interested in Christian schools, Morgan said, so two-thirds of his recruits make the initial contact. That's also holding true in track, where he has grown the roster from nine sprinters and field athletes - male and female - last year to 25 this year.
"Caleb's done a phenomenal job," Lee athletic director Larry Carpenter said. "When we hired him, we knew he was a dedicated runner who understood the mechanics of running and understood the mission of our school, and he was young and eager.
"He's a great salesman. In his case youth is an advantage, and he's also mature beyond his years."
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.