Keegan Smith wins his second individual state crown while the KCHS boys team takes first and the Lady Irish third
By Dan McWilliams
Led by individual state champion Keegan Smith, the Knoxville Catholic High School boys cross country runners captured the team state title this fall for the first time in eight years and the third occasion overall.
The Fighting Irish won the team crown in a tiebreaker over The McCallie School of Chattanooga after both teams finished with 62 points in the 5,000-meter run in the TSSAA Division II, Class AA state-championship meet at Sanders Ferry Park in Hendersonville on Nov. 7-8.
Cross country scoring uses the ordinal number of the finish of the top five runners on the team, so Knoxville Catholic’s total came from having senior Keegan in first place, junior Radek Molchan in seventh, sophomore Cade Duncanson in 11th, freshman Reid Bannister in 21st, and freshman Evan Van De Griff in 22nd (1-7-11-21-22—62). McCallie scored 2-10-15-17-18—62.
The tiebreaker was the finish of the sixth-place runner on each team. Senior Tony Ortega of Knoxville Catholic placed 25th while McCallie’s Ian Jacobs was 31st to clinch it for the Fighting Irish. The team standings featured 15 schools.
Keegan Smith holds up four fingers as he nears the finish line for his fourth KIL championship in as many years. (Photo Barry Houchin)
Keegan, a senior and a University of Colorado commit, became the first two-time individual champion in KCHS history after he finished in a time of 14 minutes, 59.16 seconds, edging out fellow senior Jack Bowen of McCallie (15:09.48) for the win. Keegan won his first state title as a freshman in 2021 with a time of 15:29.09.
The Knoxville Catholic girls cross country team, powered by a pair of top-10 finishers, placed third in the state meet behind Webb School of Knoxville in first and Girls Preparatory School of Chattanooga.
Keegan also won his fourth Knoxville Interscholastic League championship in as many years on Oct. 19 at the Cherokee Boulevard course in Knoxville.
Sean O’Neil is head coach of the KCHS boys team and also led the Fighting Irish when they won their first two team state titles in 2015-16. His long-distance runners placed fourth in the state in 2022 and fifth last fall.
Mr. O’Neil said the return to the top this year was “exciting.”
The Knoxville Catholic boys cross country team lifts the KIL championship trophy. (Photo Barry Houchin)
“We’ve been kind of knocking on the door over the last few years and gradually getting better,” he said. “It was awesome to see how hard these guys worked and see them finally make it all the way to the top.”
Seeing his group work together was the standout for him this season, Mr. O’Neil said.
“Keegan obviously helps a lot up front, but everybody did their job,” he said. “Our depth really helped carry us through. Seeing that whole team come together was really the highlight.”
Having the team championship come down to a tiebreaker “was stressful,” Mr. O’Neil said, “a little closer than we had hoped for, but again it was our depth and the whole group buying in to what we’re doing and everyone doing their part.”
Radek placed seventh in the state meet in a time of 15:43.99 while Cade posted a time of 16:03.01, Reid 16:26.93, Evan 16:26.98, and Tony 16:41.48. Senior Gonzalo Vega placed 29th for the Fighting Irish in a field of 105.
Two freshmen, Drew Gerken and Livi Ray, placed in the top 10 in the state meet for the Lady Irish. Drew took the eighth spot in a time of 19:03.62, a little more than 5 seconds ahead of Livi in ninth at 19:08.68. Caitlin Daniels, another freshman, placed 14th in 19:31.08 for Knoxville Catholic. Junior Brianna Cisneros finished in 30th in 20:58.58. Also scoring team points for the Lady Irish was senior Eileen Loebner in 48th (21:55.23).
Sophomore Juliet Biden finished 50th and junior Placey Thompson 80th for the KCHS girls in the field of 123.
With 18 teams scoring, the Lady Irish, coached by Mike Spooner, tallied 109 points to finish behind Webb (33) and GPS (101).
Top-15 finishers for the boys and girls teams earned all-state honors and received individual medals.
Keegan is a two-time Gatorade player of the year and has won eight cross country and indoor and outdoor track state championships. He has been named All-American four times and all-state 11 times, and he holds four national records for high school freshmen in the 3,000-meter outdoor, 2-mile outdoor, 1,500 indoor, and 1-mile indoor.
The KCHS senior captured the KIL 5K varsity title against a field of runners from Knoxville and Knox County schools with a course-record time of 14:52.11. Radek took fourth in 15:24.90, Cade eighth in 15:41.81, Tony ninth in 15:48.77, Reid 10th in 15:56.75, Evan 12th in 16:18.14, and Gonzalo 13th in 16:19.39 in a field of 98 runners.
The Fighting Irish won the KIL team title with 32 points to place ahead of Hardin Valley Academy (58) and Farragut (63) in the 11-school field.
In the junior varsity boys KIL finals, sophomore Graham Karnes took fifth for Knoxville Catholic while junior Levi Sprecher finished 10th and junior Noah Rile 15th. Senior Frank Ligaj, freshman Riley Horton, and eighth-grader Julian Cooper also scored top-50 finishes for KCHS, which placed third in the team standings.
Lady Irish runner Livi crossed the finish line in fifth in a time of 19:10.84 while teammate Caitlin followed her in sixth in 19:19.68 in the KIL varsity girls 5K. Drew took 10th in 19:52.81. Junior Elizabeth Wolski placed 17th (20:34.77), Brianna 19th (20:52.41), Juliet 23rd (21:14.73), and Placey 36th (22:29.72) in a field of 88.
Hardin Valley edged out the Lady Irish for second place in the KIL meet with 55 points to KCHS’s 57. Webb won team honors with 29 points.
Juniors Jillian Barry in fifth and Audrey Erwin in 10th placed for the Knoxville Catholic JV girls in the KIL championships.
