NET athletes fare well at state events

Northeast Tennessee athletes, including some from Hawkins County, showed up and showed out during Spring Fling 31, the TSSAA Championships for high school spring sports, and during the TMSAA State Championships for middle schoolers.

Overall, the eastern section of the state certainly held its own across the board. Here’s a quick recap.

TRACK & FIELD

Hawkins County produced four state champions in track and field: Volunteer’s Jacie Begley and Roman Borghetti-Metz in their respective TSSAA Class AA 800-meter runs, Rogersville City School’s Emma Stipes in TMSAA Class A discus and RCS’ relay team of Anna Mae Boyd, Kenady Deal, Rylee Sivert and Lilla Harrell in the TMSAA Class A 4x400.

The county also finished with four state runners-up: Cherokee’s Leah Mowell in Class AA girls’ shot put, Volunteer’s Kasey Brown in Class AA boys’ shot put, Volunteer’s Aliah Laster in Class AA girls’ pole vault, and RCS’ Harrell in the TMSAA Class A girls’ 800.

An athlete from the East section, in which Cherokee and Volunteer compete, won 15 of the 19 events in the TSSAA Class AA boys’ track and field championships on Tuesday, May 21, at MTSU’s Dean Hayes Stadium. Three of the top four teams (champion Greeneville, runner-up Signal Mountain and third-place Volunteer) all hailed from the East section.

East section athletes took gold in eight of the 19 Class AA girls’ events. The East’s Signal Mountain won the team title. Tennessee High was fourth and David Crockett sixth. Other local champions in Class AA girls included Crockett’s Aaliyah Story, long jump; and Tennessee High’s Chase Wolfenbarger, triple jump.

In Class AAA, Eamon Ailshie — a former Surgoinsville athlete and the son of former Volunteer coach Jim Ailshie — was part of Dobyns-Bennett’s state championship 4x800 relay team that also included Caleb Hagood, Gavin Thomas and Luke Mussard. Other local champions in Class AAA included Science Hill’s Emmett Watson, long jump; and D-B’s Mussard, 1600. In the Unified meet, D-B’s Alex Vasquez won the state title in the long jump relay.

At the TMSAA Championships on Saturday, May 18, at Austin Peay’s Fortera Stadium, a whopping 19 meet records fell — and the RCS girls’ finished third in the team standings (just two points out of second place).

Fall Branch’s Jacob Feathers set a TMSAA Class A meet record with a throw of 158-9 in the discus. The previous mark was 152-8, set in 2022. Locally, Jonesborough also won its first Class A girls’ team title. The Lady Tigers’ Cadence Commander won individual championships in the 100-meter and 400-meter dashes.

SOFTBALL

In Class 4A, D-B’s Lady Indians went undefeated and beat Stewarts Creek 3-2 in the championship game to capture the state title.

In Class 3A, Gibbs defeated Carter for the state title. Both teams came from Region 1 — in which both Cherokee and Volunteer compete.

TENNIS

In Class A, University School of Johnson City won the boys’ team title. The Bucs’ doubles team of Graham Mefford and Kyrylo Hnatusko also won the doubles’ championship.

In Class AA, Tennessee High’s Trinity Moore and Ellyson Kovacs won the doubles’ championship. Science Hill’s boys’ team finished as the state runner-up. The Hilltoppers’ duo of Daniel Haddadin and Shreeyan Papireddy also reached the title match in boys’ doubles before falling to Brentwood’s Drew Miller and Stephen Smith.

In Division II Class AA girls, Knox Catholic won the team title. Catholic’s Lillie Murphy won the girls’ singles title.

BASEBALL

In Class A, University School of Johnson City reached the championship game before falling to Eagleville.

In Class 3A, Greeneville reached the state semifinals before falling to Station Camp.

In Class 4A, Farragut won the state title.

In Division II Class A, Providence Academy reached the state championship game before falling to Columbia Academy.

SOCCER

In Class A, Gatlinburg- Pittman won the title.

In Class AA, South-Doyle defeated Greeneville for the championship.

In Class AAA, Bearden won the title.

For full results from Spring Fling 31, visit https://tssaasports.com/springfling/ . For more on the TMSAA, visit https://tssaasports.com/tmsaa/ .