West Academy XC Teams Repeat as MTAC Champs

For Immediate Release

Andrew Jackson’s The Hermitage —

    The West Academy cross country teams rode off into the
literal sunset at The Hermitage Plantation with a host of team
trophies at the season-ending MTAC conference championship meet.
The high school girls team capped a dominant conference season
while the high school boys team overcame a host of strong teams to
bring home their first team win of the season in dramatic fashion.
The wins mark back-to-back titles for the Thunderbirds and a three-peat
for the Lady Thunderbirds program.

    The Lady Thunderbirds continued their impressive season winning
the team championship with 14 total team points.  Franklin Christian Academy
took home the individual title, but could not break up the West pack tha
 crossed the finish line in 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th overall.  West was paced
by sophomore Erin Barrett and junior Ella O’Malley who completed the 3.2 mile
race only nine seconds apart. Both ladies earned 2nd Team All Conference
honors for their cumulative efforts over the course of the season.
Sophomore Sara Nakamoto and freshman Encara Davis completed the
scoring for West followed closely by Katelyn Crozier, Rachel Brady, Abigail
Brady, Hannah Wallace and Sophie Rogers.

    “We felt good coming into the conference championship meet about
the high school girls,” said Coach Holly Barrett.  “They’ve been very
consistent and close as a team all season. It certainly looked like they
were peaking at the right time.”

    The West boys came into the championship meet trending in the right
direction with 3rd and 2nd place finishes in the two previous meets, but
they had yet to break through with their first win of the season.  Led by
sophomore Spencer Libby and senior Jaren Phipps’ 7th and 8th place
overall finishes, the Thunderbird harriers clipped Madison Academy for the
team title by only 2 points. First year senior, Drew Williams, turned in a
top 10 performance with his personal best 5k time. Sophomore Noah
Burton secured the team win with his 17th place overall finish.
Seniors Zach McGahey and Titus Crozier capped their strong careers
together just one second apart...top 20 finishes for both. Aden Brannum,
Ryan Metcalf and Noah Veasman closed out the scoring for West.
Libby was named 1st team all conference while Phipps made the 2nd team.

    “I’ll be honest...we didn’t expect this one,” commented Coach Jody Barrett
speaking about the boys’ team win.  “We’ve been solidly in the top four all
year, but the top team has been pretty dominant.” Barrett continued,
“Coach Holly and the kids overcame a lot this year on and off the race
course.  It’s just very satisfying to see the smiles on their faces.”

    When asked about the sustained success of the program, Coach Holly
replied “We’ve had some strong runners graduate and move on to college,
and I wonder every summer who is going to show up at the first practice
and what we’re going to look like as a group.  I can simply say we’ve been
blessed with some great kids and supportive parents.”

    The West middle school girls team added their own hardware to the
collection with a 2nd place team trophy.  7th grader Jamie Hamm was
named 1st Team All Conference. A trio of middle school boys earned
all conference honors for West. Daniel Smith and Will Hartman were both
named 1st Team All Conference. Elliot Hartman earned 2nd Team
All Conference honors missing 1st Team by only a few seconds.

    West Academy is a varsity athletics program consisting of home school
student-athletes based in Dickson County.  West is a member of both the Middle
Tennessee Athletic Conference and the Tennessee Christian Athletic Association.
The cross country program competes at the elementary, middle and high school
levels. For more information go to www.westacademysports.org.