CLARKSVILLE, TN – While many Clarksville area spring sports had already wrapped up their seasons, several local runners were still competing on one of Tennessee’s biggest stages.
Clarksville area athletes continued their seasons at the TSSAA Track & Field State Championship meets, held May 19-21 at the University of Tennessee’s Tom Black Track Stadium in Knoxville. For local distance running, the week was more than just a final competition. It was another sign that the sport may be gaining momentum in Montgomery County.
One of the top performances came from Montgomery Central sophomore Avery Young, who placed second in the D1-AA 3200-meter run on Tuesday, May 19, with a time of 9:28. His performance was one of the strongest distance-running results by a Clarksville area athlete in recent years. Young’s success stood out, but he was not alone.
Six Clarksville area mid-distance and distance athletes qualified for the state meet in Knoxville. Those athletes included Rossview’s Casey Steel in the 800 meters, Northwest’s Kissleine Casarez in the 1600 and 3200 meters, Clarksville High’s Jayden Lowry in the 800 meters, Northwest’s Leonardo Luna in the 1600 meters, Northeast senior Arianna Lynch in the 1600 meters and Kirkwood freshman Knox Dickinson in the 1600 meters.
Three local 4×800-meter relay teams also advanced to the state meet: the Kirkwood girls, Rossview girls and Rossview boys.
Although no local individuals or relay teams scored by finishing in the top eight, several performances showed how close Clarksville runners are to breaking through. Clarksville High sophomore Jayden Lowry narrowly missed scoring with a ninth-place finish in the 800 meters.
Several of the qualifiers are also young. Lowry and Luna are sophomores, Dickinson is a freshman and Young is also a sophomore. That youth gives local coaches reason to believe the area’s best distance-running days may still be ahead.
For Coach Guy Avery and Coach Ron Sample, that is the opportunity behind Clarksville Running Academy.
Clarksville Running Academy began this winter as a local training program for middle school and high school distance runners. The program used Liberty Park as its primary training location, giving athletes a familiar local space to build fitness, learn proper training habits and train alongside other runners from across the area.
The academy was created to give local runners additional opportunities to train, learn and grow outside of their school seasons. It is not designed to replace school teams or school coaches. Instead, the goal is to support the broader running community by giving athletes more structure, more consistency and more time around other runners with similar goals.