Oak Ridge High track and field: Coach expects more athletes on the podium this season (2024)

Coach Sauer: 'The expectation at ORHS is to win ...'

Last Year: Track and field season really boils down to the championship meets. You measure your overall season by how you qualified and how you performed at the Section 1 Championship and at the TSSAA State Track and Field Meet. Everything else merely leads toward these two meets.For Oak Ridge High School track and field, the 2023 season held a mix of success and near-misses:at the Section 1 Championship, several athletes qualified for the TSSAA State Meet, including school-record-holding sprinter Seven Pettus in the 100 and 200, East Tennessee State University freshman sprinter Emily Lindsey in the 200, the girls 4x100 and 4x400 relays, and high jumper Olivia Land.  Yet, near-misses in the boys 4x400 and 4x800 relays and disappointing qualifying performances from several other athletes led fifth year Head Track Coach Tom Sauer to say flat-out that the end of the season was a disappointment. Not only would Sauer like to see the number of Oak Ridge qualifiers increase, particularly in the distance events, where the team has traditionally been a state power, but the coach would like to see more athletes on the podium. With a group of top seniors and some impressive underclassmen, he may get what he’s after.

Coaching Staff: This year’s staff contains a mix of the old and the new. Longtime distance coach Ed Wright will continue to work with the distance athletes and the 4x400 and 4x800 relays. Second-year coach Kate Zander will assist Sauer with the sprints and will coach both the horizontal and vertical jumps. Throws coach Tom Froning needs little introduction, as the longtime baseball coach has transformed into a top-notch shot and discus coach. ORHS has needed a pole coach for many years and finally has one in new coach Logan Vincent.  Sauer lays down a marker for this group: “The expectation at ORHS is to win and this group of coaches has the right mix of attitude and effort to get it done.”

Athletes to Watch:

• Trey Branson, senior - The senior captain has notched personal records in the 200 (22.31) and 400 (52.03) during his indoor campaign and is making a push to be one of the best long sprinters in AAA. He’s also a decathlete.
• Sophia Hughes, senior - Sauer said she is “poised to make a state appearance in the shot put and discus.” She had an incredible season last year. This winter Sophia threw her personal record in shot (35-3) after focusing most of last season on discus (113-11).  Sophia has committed to throw at Berry College next year.
• Kate Laffoon, senior - One of the team captains who should be competitive in the 4x8.  This is Kate’s third season. With personal records of 1:06.48 in the 400 and 2:39.16 in the open 800, the exuberant senior will likely find herself a part of both relays.
• Olivia Land, senior - The high jumper and captain has competed at the state meet two times and hopes to improve on her personal record of 5-1 from last year. A strong all-around athlete who’s focused on the pentathlon this year, she has improved her shot put mark to 29-3 and has worked at improving her nemesis, the 800m.
• Seven Pettus, senior - The senior captain is a legitimate star who won the Section 1 100 (12.44) and 200 (25.33 school record) and ran on the 4x100 (49.34) and 4x400 (4:03.63) relays. This winter she qualified for the championship race at NIKE Indoor Nationals in the 60m with a new school record of 7.77.  Is a state title within her reach?
• Dallas Frendt, junior - Sauer called Frendt “the emotional center for the team whose energy cannot be replicated.” An All-Region defensive back during football season, he’s also a long sprinter during track, running the 400m (52.42) , 800m (2:01.07), 4x4, and 4x8. Sauer said, “Mason (Greenhalgh) and Dallas are a lethal combo.”
• Odelia Kneiser, junior - Another team captain, she set the school record for the 1600m racewalk (9:33.97) during indoor season. This has energized her to improve in her running events, particularly the 1660 (5:50.99). 
• Vanelle Wandji and Kommon Wallace - The two junior sprinters will compete primarily in the 200, 4x200, and 4x4. Sauer says they “are the critical components to the success of the girl’s sprints this season.” Both will run at NIKE Indoor Nationals in the girls sprint medley relay. Wandji ran personal records in the 60 (8.10) and the 200 (28.86) during indoor season. Wallace also hit new personal records of 8.33 in the 60 and 27.93 in the 200. Both are excellent with the baton.
• Dylan Job, sophom*ore - After a breakout freshman cross country season, the sophom*ore struggled at the end of last track season and during cross country but has found her legs again and ran the fastest 800 by an ORHS runner in 15 years (2:18.26) as well as a personal record of 5:15.55 for the mile at the Tennessee State Indoor Championship last week. Sauer says that “she is always willing to do what’s best for the team and is on the sprint medley relay who qualified for NIKE Indoor Nationals.”  She’s the rare athlete who can be competitive in any event from the 200m up to the 3200m. 
• Mason Greenhalgh, sophom*ore - A state-qualifying swimmer, Greenhalgh is essentially a long sprinter during track season, running 400m (53.98), 800m (1:56.40), 4x4, and 4x8.  His 800m personal record from the Tennessee State Indoor Championship is the fastest time ever run by an ORHS sophom*ore.
• Xavier Harper, sophom*ore - An extraordinary gymnast, Harper is coming off a broken leg and didn’t jump last year. He’s a raw but gifted high jumper.
• Branson, Greenhalgh, Frendt, and Ini Abiodun-Adeniyi, senior, make up the 4x400 (3:27.81 last year) and 4x800 (8:02.59) relays that both finished fifth with times that put them near the top of the state leaderboard but didn’t qualify them for the state meet.  Greenhalgh and Frendt already have sub-2:00 800 personal records, and Abiodun-Adeniyi and Branson have run workouts that suggest sub-2:00 potential, so this relay could be among the best in the state this year. This crew qualified for NIKE Indoor Nationals and are running with a chip on their shoulders.

The Upcoming Season: The 'Cats will end the indoor campaign with a trip to New York City for the Nike Indoor Nationals at the beginning of Spring Break, and outdoor season will begin when they return. The outdoor season is built around four weeks in a row of major invitationals: The Oak Ridge Legends Invitational, which will honor Oak Ridge legend Winston Russell this year, The Mountain Brook Invitational in Birmingham, Alabama; the Vol Classic; and Six Rivers Relays in Johnson City. This year’s Sectional Meet will return to the Knoxville area, and then the state Track and Field Meet is at Middle Tennessee State University once again.

Allen Etheridge is the Oak Ridge High School assistant athletic directorand sports information director.