Keegan Smith is Gatorade POY

Pam RhoadesOur Town Youth, West Knoxville

On January 31, 2022, Knoxville Catholic freshman runner Keegan Smith was named Gatorade’s Tennessee Cross Country Player of the Year.

The 5-foot-8, 115-pound freshman won the Class AA, Division II state meet this past season with a time of 15:29.09, breaking the tape 24.28 seconds ahead of his next-closest competitor and leading the Fighting Irish to a fifth-place finish as a team.

Smith set a national freshman record with his second-place finish in 14:53.79 at the 5K Southern Showcase in Huntsville, Alabama., and he was the only freshman boy in the country to qualify for the national Eastbay Cross Country Championships, where he finished 35th.

Prior to high school, he won 21 national championships in outdoor and indoor settings in association with the AAU, the Junior Olympics and the Track and Field Coalition of the United States. He still holds five age-specific national records.

Smith has maintained an A average in the classroom. He will begin his sophomore year of high school this fall.

A member of the Knoxville Catholic High student council, Smith has volunteered locally on behalf of the Knoxville Bridge Ministry and at the Columbus Home Children’s Shelter and Assessment Center. He has also donated his time as part of multiple community service initiatives through his school’s Rotary International Interact Club, which conducts “service above self” initiatives to benefit the community.

Cross country coach Sean O’Neil said, “Keegan’s cross-country season this year was incredible, especially when you consider that as a freshman basically every experience was new to him. He was at a new school with a new team and a new coach, racing a distance that he was not used to, and on courses that were unfamiliar to him. None of that mattered. Keegan is phenomenally talented, has a great work ethic, and he handled his freshman year like a seasoned veteran. He has absolutely earned all the accolades he has coming his way.”

Pam Rhoades is director of marketing and communications at Knoxville Catholic High School

 

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