The cross country teams competed in the Jesse Owens Invitational this past Saturday and came away with some very impressive times.  Junior Jacquelin Pitcock scorched the rest of the field finishing in 1st place with a time of 18:45.  In the process, she also demolished the previous course record for the silver division race.  She beat the old record of 19:07 by 22 seconds.  Following Pitcock for the Bearettes were Becky Chillinsky 60th (21:55), Andrea Spencer 61st (21:56), Abigail Pippenger 93rd (22:49), Megan Pace 98th (22:55), Marissa Mallett 191st (28:57), and Kendra Greene 192nd (29:09).  Spencer, Pippenger, Pace, and Greene all posted their fastest times of the season.  As a team the girls finished 13th place out of teams from Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi.  The team race was so close that only 78 points separated places 2nd – 13th.

On the boy’s side, Trent Rutledge set the pace.  The senior finished in 33rd place running a personal best time of 17:46.  Following closely behind him was sophomore Jake Curtis finishing 38th, also with a personal best time of 17:55.  Another good story coming out of the race was that sophomore Kyle Baltimore competed in his first race of the year after battling injuries for most of the season.  He finished 134th with a time of 19:37.  Rounding out the boy’s team was Ben Ben-Judah who also clocked a personal best with a time of 20:22 good enough for 184th place.

With the invitational season behind them, the teams will now turn their attention to the local scene.  On Tuesday, they will compete in the final Chattanooga league meet of the season at River Park in Chattanooga and on October 16th will compete in the Chattanooga Area Championships before getting ready for the region and state.