First Region cross country teams filled the grounds at Marshall County High School Saturday for the Class 1A, 2A and 3A regional championships. Top five teams and the next five individuals earned the automatic spot to next Saturday’s KHSAA State Cross Country Championships at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington.
The boy’s team placed third behind first place Apollo and second place Madisonville North Hopkins to advance to the state meet along with fourth place Daviess County and fifth place Muhlenberg County.
“Saturday was a such an incredible achievement for the boys”, Head Coach Chris Kerrick said. “For years, we have fought for the last spot to advance to state which has always been fifth. We went in with the possibility to bring home the regional runner-up trophy and just fell short. However, I couldn’t be happier for them. We had the best seven on the line I could ask for. Each of them ran with guts and heart.”
Madisonville’s Christian Parker won the individual Region 1- 3A title in a time of 16:05.39, second place went to Colby Wiesman of Apollo in 16:17.39 and third to Garrett Watts of Madisonville in 16:23.07. Mason Cosner cracked the top 10 with the best Marshall County finish in 17:10.94 to help led the team to the state championships. Following Cosner’s ninth place was Christian Cosner 12th (17:32.58), Matt Ray 23rd (17:51.00), Ethan McCarty 24th (17:53.34), Samuel Lanham 30th (18:06.58) and Knox Sandlin 43rd (18:39.27).
“They stayed focused, determined and did everything right”, Kerrick said. “We have one of the toughest courses in the state, and many ran personal records. We focused on the last half of the course, the toughest part, throughout the year, and the boys and girls had such a focused and determined look on that section. They owned it!”
Daviess County’s girls won the Class 3A team title, McCracken County was second, Apollo third, Graves County fourth and Madisonville North Hopkins fifth, all five earning a state championship berth. The Lady Marshals finished sixth, just missing the top five cut off.
Owenboro’s Breanna Alderton won the individual Class 3A title in 18:52.80, third place went to Karlee Hoffman of Daviess County in 19:02.40 and third to Maggie Aydt of McCracken County.
Alexia Minter finished 12th with the best Marshall County finish in 21:19.30 and Gabbi Lovett 19th in 21:36.20, both qualifying for Saturday’s state championships. This will be Minter’s second trip to state as an individual, she went last year as a seventh grader. Kerrick said of Minter that she has been a very consistent runner for the team and said Lovett has been incredible in a short amount of time in her first year on the team.
“Gabbi and Lexi have a tremendous amount of fight, and I’m always confident they will do well”, Kerrick said. “With these two leading the pack and Tarryn Story running at 100%, we could be looking at a big year next season.”
The rest of the Lady Marshals results came from Tarryn Story 34th (22:36.90), Zoie Swoope 47th (23:47.90), Haley Ford 50th (24:04.50 and Chloe Newton 51st (24:13.70).
Kerrick commended all the girls for running personal bests and to seniors Bailey Sandlin and Haley Ford for leaving their hearts on the course.
“We lost some girls last year that really bonded everyone together so their absence made the girls seem more fragmented instead of one unit”, Kerrick said. “But, they all had the same goal, make it to state. I said this last year – I’ve never been so proud of a team that didn’t advance as I am of this one.”
Kerrick added he is extremely proud of all the guys and girls, saying they are an easy group to coach, and they earned their successes.
Class 1A began the day’s races with Hickman County boys and St. Mary girls taking the team titles. First play individual finishes came from University Heights, Thomas Duncan won the boy’s title and Muki Kunnmann the girls title.
Trigg County girls and Webster County boys won the Class 2A team titles. Individual wins went to Livi Ricks of Trigg County and Ryan Rolands of Webster County.
Saturday’s Nov 4 state championships start at 9:30 with Class 1A girls followed by 1A boys at 10:15. Class 2A girls begin a 11:30 and the boys at 12:15. Class 3A girls will run at 1:30 and the boys at 2:15.
CLICK HERE for complete boy’s Class 3A results.
CLICK HERE for complete girl’s Class 3A results.
