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DMS cross country starts season
cross Katherine Knowles
Photo provided Middle school cross country runner Katherine Knowles sloshes through wet terrain in her teams recent meet at the Macon County Invitational. The sixth grader took eighth overall with a time of 14:32 over the soggy two-mile course.

The DMS cross country team had a fantastic showing at their first official meet of the season at the Macon County Invitational held on August 18th.   Eighth grader Aaron Gottlied, and sixth grader Katherine Knowles led the boys and girls teams with top 10 finishes out of field of roughly 140 runners in each race.  Gottlied covered the two-mile course finishing third with a stellar time of 12:09,  just seconds behind the winner.  Knowles finished eighth overall with a time of 14:35 proving herself a fierce competitor as a sixth grader.

Out of a field of 20 teams from counties all over central Tennessee the boys finished in 4th place, missing the top three by only 9 points while the girls finished 6th over all out of a field of 18 teams. 

The race was challenging due to rain and storms that left the course saturated and muddy.  However, this didn’t stop the DeKalb Saints from some fantastic times.

Contributing to the boys team with fantastic performances were:  Cameron Miller with a time of 13:26, Kaleb Spears 13:43, Cooper Brown 13:50, Caleb Gray 14:16, Jaxon Humphrey 14:29, Andrew Tramel 14:40,  Cale Brown 15:07,  BJ Mosley 18:25,  Erick Hernandez 18:56, Liam Wallace 19:02, Balian Sanders 19:51, Jackson Hodges 20:15, Ethan Spears 20:44.

Following close behind Knowles and playing an instrumental part in the success of the girls team were:  Mylie Philips with a time of 15:00, Zoe Keys 15:11, Madeline Martin 15:36, Laina Winfree 16:25, Emily Young 16:29, Summer Morse 17:20, Mara Oakley 19:01,Sylvia Evans 19:30, Brynn Harvey 19:41, Sadie Moore 20:32, Alexa Hernandez 20:36, Zeva Robinson 20:42, Jadence Colwell 20:54. 

“I was extremely proud of the way each of these kids raced on Saturday.  As much as cross country is a “team” sport there is a huge mental and personal goal setting aspect of racing.  Each child comes to me on different running levels, but that is what makes this sport so rewarding and beautiful.  Being able to watch each runner set personal goals and then put forth the effort to achieve those goals is such a joy and blessing.  Each year this program continues to grow. We have a ton of 6th graders this year who are already posting some incredible times.  So the future continues to look promising,” said coach VanVranken.