Judson Greer, Jenna Hutchins Win Foot Locker South Titles

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Graydon Morris of Aledo, Texas will return to Foot Locker nationals for the fourth consecutive year, a feat no high school boy has accomplished since Jorge Torres of Wheeling, Ill. did it from 1995-98. 

Morris will hope that the fourth time is a charm after a pair of top-three finishes in 2017 (second) and 2018 (third). Torres won the Foot Locker title in his fourth try, in 1998. 

On Saturday at McAlpine Park in North Carolina, the boys championship race got jittery right from the start with a pair of false starts. 

RESULTS

Judson Greer, the Texas UIL 4A champion from Melissa TX, won the Foot Locker South boys title after taking second to Ryan Schoppe last weekend at NXR South. 

Greer clocked 14:57.4 and outsprinted South Carolina state champion Coen Roberts to the finish line. Roberts was second in 14:58.3. Morris, the Texas 5A champion, was third. 

The remaining seven qualifying spots came in a rush of six seconds after Morris crossed the line. 

In the girls race, Jenna Hutchins of Johnson City, Tenn. (Science Hill), rebounded from illness that prevented her from winning her state title. She won the regional title in 16:53.2 and was pressed at the end by Ava Dobson of Greenville, S.C., who was second in 16:54.4.

Last year, Hutchins finished eighth in the South region and went on to place ninth at the national final at Balboa Park in San Diego.

Dobson, a senior at St. Joseph's Catholic, finished 16th at the South regional as a sophomore in 2017 and 14th last year as a junior.

While Hutchins and Dobson race for the win, they had a margin of 10 seconds on third-place finisher Bethany Graham of Aldie, Va., Kelsey Harrington of Bristol, Va., who was fourth, and Carly McNatt, a talented freshman who attends the IMG Academy in Florida, who was fifth.