No. 5 Webb of Knoxville, Led By Jazzlyn and Calysta Garner, Among The Headliners This Weekend In North Carolina

By Oliver Hinson of DyeStat

In Dan Murray’s first year as the head cross country coach at the Webb School of Knoxville, his girls’ team took third place at the NXR Southeast Regional, missing out on a trip to Nike Cross Nationals by one point.

Murray had mixed feelings about that meet. On one hand, the agony was obvious — one lousy point! — but the Spartans still put three runners in the top 25 overall. Murray had expected his team to finish fifth; anything better was reason for celebration.

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“It might bother me in hindsight,” Murray says, “but that’s the best effort we had on the day.”

Now in his second year, Murray doesn’t have the safety net of low expectations. The girls have dominated their first two invitationals — that’s why they’re ranked fifth in the latest DyeStat National XC rankings — and they’ll face their first major test this weekend at the Great American XC Festival in Cary, N.C., a meet that will feature several of the top teams in the South and Southeast regions.

James Robinson VA, the 18th best team in the country, will be there; so will Brentwood TN, ranked second in the Southeast, and South Texas Heat, ranked fifth in the South.

On the individual side, US#1 Averi Lowen (Bowdon GA), US#5 Lily Alder (Timpview UT) and US#7 Elin Latta (South Texas Heat TX) will provide plenty of firepower up front. The Webb School’s two-headed monster — twins Jazzlyn and Calysta Garmer, ranked 11th and 12th in the country, respectively — hasn’t been challenged so far this year, but that’s sure to change this weekend.

Murray is looking for a number of things this weekend. His girls are lining up next to many of the teams they’ll be seeing at NXR Southeast in November — on the same course, no less — and he knows this will be a good chance for them to visualize the success they’re looking for in two months.

But he also knows that this is a dress rehearsal. Murray has a background in theater, and that experience has taught him, among other things, that the dress rehearsal is far from the end-all-be-all.

“I’ve had catastrophic dress rehearsals that turned into fantastic productions,” Murray says. “And I’ve had fantastic dress rehearsals that did not meet expectations in production.”

Murray equates this meet to NCAA Pre-Nationals. The best teams are certainly in good form by this point, but far from their peak.

“I don’t want them to think that this is a measure of their talent,” Murray says, “or the culmination of all their effort.”

More than anything, Murray wants them to “run free, run light, run competitive, be savvy, and enjoy the experience.” This is a chance for them to put themselves out there and be honest with themselves. Whatever problems they notice, they have several weeks to fix.

That being said, based on the early-going, there shouldn’t be too many problems. Murray is more than pleased with the way his girls have “bought in” to his training in just his second year, and that trust has led to results. The Garmers and fellow senior Caroline Areheart are leading the way, giving the team what Murray calls an “interchangeable number one,” and the rest of the pack is feeding off of their success.

“If the new norm is [running] 16-mid to win a race as opposed to 17-mid, everybody sort of gets in line behind them,” Murray says.

Murray needs that falling in line to occur. He needs his fourth and fifth runners to see themselves as future ones and twos — future state champions, perhaps. It’s that belief that may take them to Portland in December.

Bluejays Take Off At Nike South

On the boys’ side, Jesuit LA is the favorite; the Blue Jays are ranked fourth in the country in the latest DyeStat national rankings. Like Murray, head coach Nick Accardo is excited to see what his team can do, especially after their dominant performance at the Nike South XC Invitational two weekends ago. jesuit scored 44 points, led by senior Brady Monahan’s third place finish.

At that meet, Accardo had a particular point of emphasis for his team, the same one he has this weekend: go out hard. They didn’t do that enough last year, and they paid for it.

“In some of these bigger races, we’ve been able to go out slower, and when the course is wide enough, we can work our way through and still finish well,” Accardo says. “But as the competition’s gotten higher, going to these big meets like Great American last year, we got buried behind everybody and then worked our way through and finished third.”

Starting fast worked like a charm at Nike South. Admittedly, some of the boys felt as if they were fading in the last mile, but Accardo believes that’s a price worth paying. He gives his runners verbal cues, like “total body relaxation” and “run as smooth as you can,” to keep them from going too far to the other end of the spectrum. He wants them fast, but relaxed.

Striking that balance is going to be key with the caliber of competition his boys are facing this weekend. They may be the favorites, but the field is loaded. Christ School NC (US#10), IMG Academy FL (US#11), Trinity KY (US#17) and Belen Jesuit FL (US#19) will all be in attendance. So will many of the best individuals in the South and Southeast, including Belen Jesuit’s Marcelo Mantecon (US#3), Cary Academy NC’s Kavi Gibson (US#16) and IMG Academy’s Matthew Dodds. 

Accardo believes his boys are up to the task. Despite losing their top runner — Brady Mullen, who finished 36th at NXN and now runs for Harvard — the Bluejays are running much stronger than they did last year. Mullen’s departure may have actually been a blessing in disguise, Accardo says.

“All the boys really looked up to (Mullen),” Accardo says, “but none of them thought they should be close to him. We would see some stuff in practice where it was like, ‘Man, we could be better,’ but in a race situation, they just wanted to be behind him.”

When Mullen left, there was a power vacuum at the top. Monahan was the one to fill it, but his teammates don't defer to him the way they did Mullen.

“They’re all willing to go run in the front now because they’re not scared of their teammate,” Accardo says.

That fearlessness is going to be key this weekend, as it will be in November when the Blue Jays travel to College Station for NXR South. The team finished fourth last season, and this year, the expectations are higher. Accardo knows his team is capable of making it to NXN, and he wants that opportunity for them more than anything.

“I told them, ‘It’s literally the opportunity of a lifetime,’” Accardo says. “‘I know you’re young and you have other things in life, but if you can sneak a spot in something like this, it’s really cool.’”