Cross Country

Boys Coaches: Dodd Dixon, sixth season. Tee Harrington, assistant coach. Last year: The Cardinals placed first at five meets. The team was predicted by KYmilesplit to advance to the state meet last season. Due to illnesses and injury, the team fell short of this prediction. Starters lost: Co-captains Colton Lewis and Amos Gapp. Top returnees: This year’s team is led by team captain Clay Dixon and Alex White. White has competed at the state cross country meet the past two seasons.

Meagan Smith has never lost a cross country race. Kaitlin Snapp couldn't say that, and neither could just about any other runner who has ever tried the sport. But Smith remains unbeaten, even if her career consists of a single race. The Danville junior won her very first race Saturday in convincing fashion, rolling to a 39-second victory in the girls varsity race at Danville's E.G. Plummer Invitational and causing competitors who came to realize it was her cross country debut to shake their heads in amazement.

Kaitlin Snapp of Danville won the girls junior race at the Kentucky Track and Cross Country Coaches Association Meet of Champions on Saturday in Lexington. Snapp won the race easily with a time of 18 minutes, 52 seconds over the 3.1-mile course at Masterson Station Park. Runners were separated in the event by their class years. Calvin Steber had the best finish for the Danville boys, running sixth in the sophomore race in 18:49. Other Danville times: Boys: Karl Hempel 18:28, Chase Berry 19:14, Rollins Grubbs 19:15, Wright Williams 20:15, Dylan Crowe 20:44, Max Meckes 21:21, Michael McChesney 21:28,Jack Merryman 24:54.

The George Rogers Clark boys and girls cross country teams captured the annual “Beast in the East” meet Saturday at Owlsey County. The Lady Cardinals pulled off a three-peat, winning the title for the third year in a row in the 13-team event. The boys’ team also finished in first, fending off Letcher Central, Harlan County and Madison Central. Clark finished fourth in the event last year and third in 2008. “(Our goal) was for the team to win for the third year in a row,” Tiffany Toler said.

The Centre College men’s and women’s cross country teams finished third Saturday at the Sewanee Invitational. On the men’s side Centre had three runners finish in the top ten. Senior Clinton Cahall led the way for the Colonels as he finished third with a time of 26 minutes, 42.14 seconds. Freshman John Kieffer took fourth in 26:49.65. Senior Sam Morgan took seventh place, recording a time of 27:19.49. Junior Graham Campbell was 15th overall with a time of 27:48.

A Kentucky High School Athletic Association realignment proposal for track and cross country could drastically change the competitive landscape in those sports, and a couple of local coaches whose teams would be affected say it isn't a change for the better. The change would convert the current three classes with approximately the same number of schools in each to three classes of distinctly different sizes, based on the idea that not all teams are created equal. And the area coaches who disagree with the proposal say that while the concept isn't bad, it creates unnecessary imbalances and inconveniences within each class.

On the afternoon of April 3, Winchester native Michael McGuire's friend dropped him off at the pier in Ventura, Calif. There, McGuire dipped his toe in the Pacific Ocean, got on his bike and headed east. On his way, he passed a sign in Bishop, Calif., that marks 3,652 miles to Provincetown, Mass. Some time next month, McGuire will reach the Atlantic Ocean, completing a coast-to-coast trek entirely on a bicycle. While crossing the continent by bike has always been someting he's wanted to do, McGuire said he would have been stupid to do so without at lease some fundraising effort.

Alex Bunch has been a frequent runner in Louisville over the past several years, with six seasons of varsity cross country often drawing her to the area and five straight appearances in the state  track and field championships taking her to the University of Louisville track complex. Starting this fall, the standout Lincoln County High School distance runner will become a fixture on the Louisville running circuit, having signed her letter of intent to run for UofL. Decked out in a red UofL t-shirt and Cardinal baseball cap, the LCHS senior realized her lifelong dream of running at the collegiate level by signing her letter of intent during a special ceremony at the school.

Their decisions were their own, but from here on out, Alex Beckerson and Bryant Qualls are in it together. The two runners, Beckerson of Burgin and Qualls of Mercer County, have been friends for most of their lives and rivals for almost as long. Now they'll be teammates for the first time, as both have committed to run for the track and field and cross country teams at Kentucky Wesleyan. They plan to make it official today at a joint signing ceremony in Harrodsburg. The joint signing is unusual for athletes from different schools, but both runners love the idea of sharing their moment with the other.

Emily Frith, a former cross country and track standout at Lincoln County, has been named an NCAA Division II All-American in cross country. The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced on Nov. 19 the 80 student/athletes who received All-American honors for the 2012 NCAA Division II Cross Country season. Overall finish at the NCAA Championships is the determining factor as the top 40 individuals from both men's and women's races earn All-American plaudits from the USTFCCCA.

LEXINGTON - Sophomore Brian Carlson, the top runner for the Lincoln Patriots, took third place at the Region 7 Championships on Nov. 3 then followed that up with a 16th-place finish at state, the highest finish of any area male runner and the best finish to date of any Lincoln County cross country runner. Carlson ran his final race of the season over the rolling hills of the Kentucky Horse Park, placing 16th out of 223 runners in the KHSAA Class 3A Cross Country State Championships in a time of 16 minutes, 50.54 seconds.

Three members of the George Rogers Clark Cross Country team competed Saturday at the KHSAA State Championships at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. Grayson Brookshire led the boys' squad with a 17:40 finish, followed by Ben Petrey, who ran the race in 20:02. The boys race was won by Chase Geary, who opened the season in January during a meet held in Winchester. In the final team scores St. Xavier placed first. Louisville Trinity was second and Daviess County was third. In the girls competition, Clark senior Cora Kerber ran the 5K course in 22:03.  Bailey Davis of Assumption won the girls race with a time of 18:12.

LEXINGTON - Nikki Coffey wasn't sure she even had enough strength to finish her race. Turns out, she had enough to run her fastest race ever. The Boyle County sophomore kicked it in with half a mile to go Saturday and finished ninth in the girls Class AA race at the state cross country championships at the Kentucky Horse Park.  “It was tough. Every year since I've been to state, I've picked it up at the finish,” said Coffey, who finished the race in a personal-best time of 19 minutes, 55.81 seconds.

LEXINGTON - Meagan Smith had her plan. She was going to stay with the leaders and then make her move when it felt right. Well, that plan went out the window in a hurry, and to the benefit of Smith. The Danville junior took the lead for good at the 1/2-mile mark and then pulled away for a 21-second win in the Class A cross country championships Saturday at the Kentucky Horse Park. “I was just like, I want to stay with them (the leaders). I'm not going to try to take the lead and be in the lead the whole race, but I'm just going to try and stay with the pack and see if I can beat them towards the end of the race,” said Smith, who won the 3.1-mile race in 19 minutes, 16.39 seconds.

A year after winning the Region 5 championship, the West Jessamine boys' cross-country team was near the head of the pack, placing second to Wayne County on Saturday and punching its ticket to the state championships this Saturday. West Jessamine finished with a team score of 69 as it had all seven runners place in the top 30 and the top five place in the top 23. Senior Matthew Liversedge placed eighth overall with a time of 18 minutes, 43.04 seconds - he was 117th at state last year.