Male’s Kaitlyn Lacy takes first place in the Class 3a Region 3 girls 5k cross country championship with a time of 18:04.48.
29 October 2016
Plenty of cross country regional champions were crowned in a pair of Class 3-A meets at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park on Saturday afternoon.
All of those, and many others, advanced to the KHSAA State Cross Country Championships next Saturday at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington.
Male junior Kaitlyn Lacy rolled to her fourth consecutive regional title in the girls’ Class 3-A, Region 3 competition.
“I felt really good going into it. I wasn’t going for time I was just going for place,” she said.
Lacy crossed the finish line of the 5,000-meter race in 18 minutes, 8.48 seconds.
PHOTO GALLERY | Regional cross country meets
“We had a gameplan today and she hit every mark for every mile she wanted today,” Male coach Damon Smith said. “I don’t think she got the time that she wanted, but this is her fourth straight region championship. … I’m extremely proud of her. She truly deserves it. She’s put a lot of hard work in this season.”
Lacy won last year’s regional by nearly 19 seconds over Manual’s Alena Sapienza-Wright, but then lost by nearly 10 seconds to her at State. Saturday, Sapienza-Wright finished nearly 44 seconds behind Lacy (18:52.40) in second.
“I hate to say this, but I expected it,” Smith said of Lacy’s performance. “I just think it’s her year. She’s put the work in, she truly deserves it.”
The team outcome flip-flopped. Led by Sapienza-Wright, the Crimsons won with 32 points while Male placed second with 44.
“The girls did exactly what they needed to do. They wanted to pack tightly and stay together, push each other along the course,” said Manual coach Tim Holman, whose team swept places six through 10.
In the Class 3-A, Region 3 boys race, Manual senior Yared Nuguse, last year’s region runner-up, claimed the title this time around. He crossed the finish line in 15:45.18.
“I felt good during the race, but it came out a little slower than I thought it would be. I was looking to go for a PR, or around there, but it’s fine,” said Nuguse, whose personal-best is 15:19. “It was still a really tough race. It was a little warm for this time of year, but I like it warmer anyway. It was a little windy too, but it was windy for everyone.”
Added Holman: “Yared’s been really feeling fresh, bouncy and eager to race. Last week at JCPS I gave him the option of, ‘Hey do you want to go out and run to win, or do you want to really race the course?’ And he just likes to race, he doesn’t know anything different. He just went out and cruised today.”
Meanwhile, defending state champion St. Xavier cruised to the team title. Despite not racing some of their top runners, the Tigers took seven of the Top 10 spots. Leading the way was junior Cooper Marchal, who finished second in 16:02.87. Also for St. X, sophomore Zachary Larkin placed third (16:16.85) and junior Thomas Knepshield took fourth (16:26.62).
In the Class 3-A, Region 4 girls’ race, Sacred Heart Academy junior Kathleen Simms claimed her third regional title in a row, crossing the finish line in 18:55.
“It was just a great opportunity for me to get more experience this year, because it hasn’t been my best year. I’ve been through a lot outside of running too. It’s been hard,” said Simms, whose season started late due to a stress fracture. “I came back from an injury in late August, that’s when I started actually training, so that set me back a little bit. Today I just knew that it could’ve been anyone’s race. It could’ve been Hallie Searcy’s, it could’ve been Sarah Michels’ or anyone else’s race, but I just had fight really hard and just earn that for myself.”
Sarah Michels, an Assumption junior, was second (19:06.23) while Hallie Searcy, a South Oldham senior, took third (19:09.51).
Led by Michels, the Rockets took home the team title with 41 points.
“We started this season out with a lot of inexperience and I told the girls at the beginning of the season, ‘You’re a good JV team right now. Let’s see if we can become a good varsity team by the end of the season,’” Assumption coach Barry Haworth said. “And they really came together. It was all about them believing they could do something and today they started to show that the loose ends are starting to get tied up. I’m hoping that this is one step short of what we can also do in a week (at State). I’m excited. They’re a varsity team now.”
Sacred Heart was second with 58 points while South Oldham edged rival Oldham County for third.
Trinity junior Trevor Warren edged teammate, and classmate, Jacob Burnam by less than two seconds (15:57.79 to 15:59.28) for the victory in the Class 3-A, Region 4 boys competition.
Warren, like many other participants, collapsed on the ground after the race.
“The end of the race was definitely a close one,” Burnam said. “We’ve both been training together. Coming into the stretch he ended up getting the best of me. He has a pretty good kick. I was putting everything I had out there, but he still got it.”
“The heat got to everybody. It was really warm out here today. The first mile is in the shade, that felt pretty good, but then once we came out across the field it got a little rough, so that last mile was just about hanging on.”
The Shamrocks, who had three of the top four finishers (sophomore Jack Baum was fourth), won the team title with 24 points. Eastern was second with 52.
The boys’ 3-A State meet is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. next Saturday with the girls’ 3-A race to follow at 2:15 p.m.