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Dupont Manual’s Alena Sapienza-Wright wins the KHSAA Class 3A State Cross Country Meet at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Ky., on Saturday, November 7, 2015.
Photo by Mike Weaver
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South Oldham’s Cole Dowdy wins the KHSAA Class 3A State Cross Country Meet at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Ky., on Saturday, November 7, 2015.
Photo by Mike Weaver
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Cole Dowdy and Alena Sapienza-Wright won the boys and girls Class 3-A State Cross Country titles, respectively, on Saturday at Kentucky Horse Park. St. Xavier won the team title on the boys side while Daviess County bested Male and Sacred Heart to take the girls crown.
“It was a good race,” said Dowdy, who finished in 15:20.38, one spot ahead of last year’s champion Brennan Fields and two spots ahead of his brother Tanner. “It’s my last race in the South Oldham uniform, so I wanted to try to feed on the connection that Tanner and I have during races. It was awesome. We found ourselves in the front early on and stayed there to see what I had left the last half mile.”
“I knew it was going to be a grind to the finish, and that last half mile was just a sprint,” said Tanner Dowdy, who finished second last year. “It was gutsy racing out there. That’s the way I like to race. That’s the way a state championship should be. It’s funny, I feel more satisfied with the way I ran this year even though I finished one spot worse.”
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GALLERY | Class 2-A state cross country meet
There’s nothing worse than losing a state title by one point, which is what St. Xavier did to South Oldham last year. The Tigers have been stalking the Dragons all year long, unbeknownst to them.
“Our slogan all year was ‘One,’” St. Xavier coach Chuck Medley said. “We were out to get that one point back. Our guys worked very hard this year and bought into what we’re trying to do. Nobody’s entitled to the championship. You have to earn it, and we did.”
Tigers usually hunt alone, but this group worked in packs all season long. Their top five runners finished in the top 11 overall, led by Spencer Hayden in fourth and Matthew Thomas in fifth.
MORE COVERAGE | Thornsberry, Holy Cross boys finish runners-up at Class 1-A meet
GALLERY | Class 1-A state cross country meet
Other local boys in the top 15 were Yared Nuguse of Manual (6th), Ryan Guenthner, Patrick Schaefer and Zachary Larkin of St. Xavier (8th, 9th, and 11th), Trevor Warren of Trinity (13th), Hayden Tinal of South Oldham (14th) and Sam Ackerman of Eastern (15th).
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Dupont Manual’s Alena Sapienza-Wright hugs her mother after winning the KHSAA Class 3A State Cross Country Meet at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Ky., on Saturday, November 7, 2015.
Photo by Mike Weaver
On the girls side, the continuing saga of Alena Sapienza-Wright of Manual and Kaitlyn Lacy of Male produced another exciting chapter. Sapienza-Wright finished in 18:09.45, less than 10 seconds ahead of her rival.
“Kathleen (Simms, 3rd) did a great job of leading the middle of the race,” Sapienza-Wright said. “Kaitlyn and I just stuck with her and then that last half mile I just was like ‘I’m going to do this.’ I had a hard last couple of races and today I just really wanted to go out there and kill it.”
“Simms, Alena and I just kind of packed together and then at the end we split apart,” Lacy said, “It was kind of what I expected and I knew that somewhere during that last mile someone was going to surge. It was Alena today.”
Male finished second in the team competition, and head coach Damon Smith was ecstatic after the race.
“I’m shocked and elated,” Smith said. “These girls put a lot of work in this year and it paid off. I told them ‘Why not us?’ at the starting line. We tried our best to get them to peak at the right time and they did.”
Other local girls in the top 15 were Sierra Poppell of Bullitt East (12th) and Sydney Larkin and Sarah Michels of Assumption (13th and 14th).
KHSAA | Class 3-A girls individual and team results
KHSAA | Class 3-A boys individual and team results