The typical cross county course is 5000 meters in length, but is must seem like it took a million miles to get there for Forrest coach Jennifer Gaskill, who took over the cross country team five years ago.

“My first year coaching five years ago we had seven runners (girls and boys combined) and we didn’t even have enough to qualify as a team,” said Gaskill, who is a first-grade teacher at Chapel Hill Elementary School. “I knew I wanted to bring running back to life at Forrest.”

With the cupboard empty, Gaskill has made leaps and bounds starting from the bottom up, forming run clubs at CHES and Delk Henson before building a formidable middle school team.

“I didn’t want the students involved in that to miss their middle school years not being involved in running,” Gaskill said. “My second year of coaching was the first year we had a middle school team.”

Year three progressed to the 2018-2019 season and the young squad turned in to a solid high school contender that paid dividends when the Lady Rockets finished third at the regionals and made their first state tournament appearance, finishing in 23rd place.

Forrest responded with an even better year this season as they won the Region 6 Meet and made another trip to the TSSAA State Cross Country Championships at the Percy Warner Park Steeplechase Course in Nashville on Saturday.

In what was a surprise to many, the Lady Rockets turned in a stellar performance, finishing in fourth place out of the 23 teams that qualified.

It was not a surprise for Gaskill, who said, “I am very proud, we made a goal to place first this year in regionals, so the team was thrilled when they accomplished that goal.”

“Last year we placed 10th out of 23 teams at state, this year we placed 4th out of 23 teams, so the girls once again worked hard and beat their goal from last year.”

It helps to have a solid anchor on any track or cross country team and the Lady Rockets have an ace in freshman Jaedyn Stalnecker, who came across the finish line in fourth place, just a little over 15 seconds behind another freshman, state champion Alyssa Andrea from Fairview.

“I remember the first time I met her (Stalnecker) she ran a mile at our tryouts,” Gaskill said. “She ran the mile around a 5:45 time and I was blown away at her speed.”

“Her parents always say, ‘she’s tiny, but mighty’ and this is so true, she has so much heart and love for running, and she puts in many hours outside of practice and it shows. She crosses that finish line with a smile on her face!”

Stalnecker has honed her skills at the Junior Olympics and the nationals and also qualified for the middle school state championships along with classmates Abby Davenport and Micah Reasonover.

Reasonover finished in 52nd place while Davenport crossed the finish line in 72nd place on Saturday, traversing a course that was the same tract as the regionals where Forrest won.

“This was great for the girls because they already knew the course going into state and they knew going in what time to beat and the pace they needed to maintain,” Gaskill said. “Some of the girls also know the pressure of being at a state meet from last year, so they were able to lead the girls that haven’t been to state with handling the pressure that can come from running such an important race.”

Cornersville senior Sorrell Martin, making her second consecutive trip to the state tournament was the closest Marshall County runner behind Stalnecker, crossing the finish line in 22nd place.

The lone senior on the Forrest team Zoe Long has had an amazing fall sports campaign by playing football, soccer, and running cross country.

Long, who is also a member of the 2018-2019 Lady Rockets softball that won the state title last year, is the first four-sport athlete in Forrest history.

“Zoe is an amazing athlete,” Gaskill said. “She missed some of our Mid-State meets due to soccer games, but she was able to run all of our Saturday races and of course regionals. I don’t see how she keeps up with all of the practices and games.”

Long was the place kicker for the football team Friday night before showing her athletic prowess by finishing in 37th place on Saturday.

“I have so much respect for Zoe, she would stay up late from the night before at a football game and get up early the next morning to run in some of our Saturday meets,” Gaskill said. “She shows up and shows out. She is committed to every sport that she participates in and the younger girls know they have some big shoes to fill.”

Sophomore Hanna Lovins finished 108th, freshman Amber Sanchez was 112th and sophomore Marysa Edde rounded out the still young Forrest squad with a 118th place finish.

“Our whole team has such great kids, they are respectful and they come to practice ready to work,” Gaskill said. “They all put in many hours, from the 6:30 a.m. summer practices to the late afternoon practices during the school year.”

The future is very bright for the Lady Rockets.

“I always tell them what you put into running is what you are going to get out of running,” Gaskill added. “After this season, I can honestly say this team put in that extra work and I just can’t say enough great things about them.”

“One of my goals as a coach is that they will all have a love of running that will stick with them throughout their lives. Since they keep coming back for more each year, I think that’s a goal that may be in reach.”

2019 TSSAA State Cross Country Championships

Percy Warner Park/Steeplechase Course, Nashville

Saturday, November 2

Top 10

Name Year School Time

1 Alyssa Andrea 9 Fairview 20:26.71

2 Emma Bradford 12 Sequatchie County 20:39.54

3 Lily Stinnett 10 Gatlinburg-Pittman 20:41.59

4 Jaedyn Stalnecker 9 Forrest 20:41.92

5 Lexie LaDuc 9 Cannon Co. 21:06.50

6 Abigail Murrill 9 Community 21:29.88

7 Tara Jessen 10 Signal Mountain 21:33.79

8 Kelsey Thompson 9 Signal Mountain 21:41.36

9 Bailey Morris 9 Camden 21:44.38

10 Sophia Gibby 11 Signal Mountain 21:54.77

Other County Finishers

22 Sorrell Martin 12 Cornersville 22:39.21

37 Zoe Long 12 Forrest 23:36.14 27

52 Micah Reasonover 9 Forrest 24:28.65 39

53 Lily Ledford 8 Cornersville 24:33.82 40

72 Abby Davenport 9 Forrest 24:59.89 54

104 Alli Wells 10 Cornersville 26:29.10

108 Hanna Lovins 10 Forrest 26:36.09 86

112 Amber Sanchez 9 Forrest 26:49.39 90

118 Marysa Edde 10 Forrest 26:59.71 96

127 Ella Ragsdale 10 Cornersville 27:22.71

141 Camy Forsyth 8 Cornersville 28:09.09

Team Scores Top 5

1 Signal Mountain 1:49:10.51

2 University School-Johnson City 1:55:26.30

3 White House-Heritage 1:57:28.25

4 Forrest 2:00:22.69

5 Cannon County 2:01:16.12