Cross country races to 7th state champion title

By Lindsey Bachman, HS Girls Cross Country Coach & PE TeacherMemphis’s most famous resident, Elvis Presley, made the phrase “taking care of business” into his personal mantra (and the name of his band) - the USNXC teams epitomized that approach yesterday with spectacular performances at the state championships. The boys won the program’s seventh state title and the girls had a great day to finish third.

The boys raced first under crystal clear but slightly too warm for November skies. By the first mile, it was clear that the team was in strong positions from 1-7, and that would remain the case throughout. As the race progressed, Caleb Freifeld and Griffin Davidson hung just behind the leading pack of four, with Ike Tift not far behind. Those three would all end up in the top 10 (5th, 7th, and 10th, respectively) and were more than capably supported by a wave of runners not far behind - Drew Zwerner and Jack Fruin consecutively in 16th and 17th, and James Little in 20th. Caleb Little, who had been too sick to run last week at Region, was still capable of cracking the top 30 today in 29th. When the proverbial dust settled, the boys had won by 56 points, a massive gap that was so dominant that the team would have still handily won without its top two runners or even if we had counted all seven runners vs the other teams’ five. It was indeed an historic performance.

With the boys race complete and championship energy buzzing in the air, it was time for the girls to take to course. Qualifying only individuals the previous two years, the girls had not toed the line 7 strong as a TEAM since 2023. For our 4-four year seniors Madeleine Wiseman, Jackie Seale, Adelaide Ritter, and Norah Harrison,

Thank you all for supporting the team throughout the season. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming and will let Model UN be the next to bring home some exciting results!