Saturday, Nov. 2 is a date that the parents, fans and supporters of the Brookhaven High cross-country team will never forget. The same is especially true for the student athletes on the team and their coaches, Shannon Knott and Kevin Bower.

It’s on that date when the BHS girls’ team won its first state championship in program history in thrilling style at the MHSAA 5A state title meet on Choctaw Trails in south Jackson.

After being close year after year, the team has finished as 5A runners-up in six of the last seven previous seasons, it was finally their turn to hoist the championship trophy.

Brookhaven High beat Corinth High by a single point, as the Panthers earned 35 points, and the Warriors from northeast Mississippi came in second with 36 points.

All championships are meant to be savored, but this one feels extra special for a couple of different reasons. One being, Corinth returned virtually its entire roster from last season, a team that beat Brookhaven High by 17 points on the same course a year ago.
The win by BHS broke a string of Corinth winning six straight state championships in its classification.

To beat the Warriors, the Panthers knew they’d need to improve and go lower in 2024, but that’s easier said than done.
Cross-country is a sport that demands dedication. You can’t expect to be fast in November if you aren’t putting in the punishing miles during the worst of the June and July heat that Mississippi has to offer.

As your team gets older, you’ll often see times start to slip for runners that were faster in junior high but are now facing a myriad of distractions that come with having a driver’s license and other competing interests.

The great teams and great runners have the ability to block that out and focus on their intended goal.

It says a lot about the determination of this team that on Saturday, Brookhaven High brought six runners to the championship, with four of them being seniors.

Senior Natalie McKinney was the first Panther across the finish line on Saturday, finishing the 5K course in 21 minutes and 40 seconds, which put her third behind the first-place finisher Elsie Wilbanks (20:27) and second-place runner Andi Kate Holley (21:40), both of Corinth.

Those same two seniors from Corinth finished first and second in the 2023 meet.

McKinney was sixth overall as a junior and on Saturday, she shaved 33 seconds off her time from last year.

If you live or work anywhere near downtown Brookhaven, then you’ve likely seen McKinney getting her miles in over the last year. It seems she started training for 2024 the day after the 2023 race ended.

Following McKinney across the line was her sophomore teammate, Isabella Iles with a time of 21:50, in fourth place. Iles also finished fourth last season in the state meet.

Iles finished at 21:50.27 and her senior teammate Ariyana Graham came across the finish line at 21.50.56. Graham missed much of her junior cross-country season with an injury and has been a key piece of the state championship winning track and field program at BHS in her career.

Senior Annabelle Summers had a huge impact on her team winning the championship, as she finished eighth overall at 22:12. Summers shaved 24 seconds off her time as a junior, when she finished 10th overall.

Senior Ella Thompson finished 15th in 23:56 and sophomore Abby Slay followed her for Brookhaven High in 18th place with a time of 24:19.

Thompson finished three seconds ahead of a runner from Gautier High, a result that helped secure the title for the Panthers.

And to further add some drama to the story, the Panthers did not think they won at first. In fact, Corinth High was being interviewed by a running website as the winners when the screen flashed that Brookhaven High had won.
Which sent the girls sprinting to find Knott and celebrate with their coach.

“There was a runner still out on the course for Lafayette County and her finish adjusted the scores for everyone else,” said Knott. “Initially, it looked like we were tied and they had beaten us via the tiebreaker. The boys’ race had started and all of a sudden, we found out that we won.”

The grit of this group of girls was on display throughout the lead up to the state championship.

McKinney had to have her gallbladder taken out during the season, as it was attached to her liver. She was back running in remarkable fashion after a much more invasive surgery than planned. Her times continued to improve as she had been running in pain just before her surgery.
Slay missed time with mononucleosis and Thompson battled injuries too.
They won early races as a team but went through a spell where the whole group rarely got to run together.

Most painful of all the battles that had to overcome, Summers, who cheers and plays soccer at Brookhaven High, lost her dad, Trey Summers, suddenly this summer.

A Command Sergeant in the Mississippi Army National Guard, Trey Summers was a beloved member of the Brookhaven High family, with his booming voice easy to pick up when he was shouting encouragement for his kids.

He would be extremely proud of the toughness and determination of his youngest daughter as her improved time in the championship was the result of much dedication and hard work.

There have been some great traditions in cross-country for BHS. There was a time in the recent past when the boys’ team was on a dominant streak, with Thompson’s older brother Jake being one of the top runners at that time for multiple 5A championship winners.
The girls have been close so many times, but come up short year after year, even losing a couple times to a Saltillo team that they’d beaten previously in a season.

Even with everyone working back towards getting healthy late in the 2024 season, this team still got a strong showing from those who ran in early October during the yearly trip to the Jesse Owens Classic in Oakville, Alabama.

Running in a massive field that draws over 100 schools from all over the southeast United States, the Panthers got great results out of Iles, Summers, McKinney, and Graham that day as Iles broke her previous school-best time with a 19:53.

It felt like when the stakes were highest, this team would be ready to respond.
And that’s what happened on Saturday when a group of two sophomores and four seniors wrote their names forever in the BHS history books as state champions.
“When you looked at the raw numbers, Corinth was heavily favored to beat us, by something like 30 points,” said Knott. “I did think we had some advantages though because they had not run at Choctaw Trails this season and we run at a couple events there every year. I also thought we had been running well in the heat and it was warm on Saturday. I told the girls before we went out that we weren’t worried about times or trying to hit a target, but they needed to dig down and compete.”

And that’s what they did in unforgettable fashion.