Rockcastle County

Bailey Spaulding shot a match-low 37 Tuesday at Bright Leaf to lead the Mercer County boys to a 166-185 win over visiting East Jessamine at Harrodsburg. It was Mercer's lowest round of the year. “This was a good win,” Mercer coach Jay Anderson said. “East Jessamine was without their numbers two and three players, so they weren't playing at full strength, but this win a great boost for our confidence as get into the latter part of our season.” Rockcastle County 169, Boyle County 197 - At Mount Vernon, Dakota Jarman shot a match-low 37 to lead the Rebels in a loss to host Rockcastle at Cedar Rapids Country Club.

The Garrard County boys got balanced scoring from their top four scorers Tuesday to down visiting Boyle County 171-178 in a Bluegrass Conference match at Buena Vista. Lincoln Gay and Nick Lark each shot 42 as all four Golden Lions shot in the low 40s at Peninsula Ben Kendrick fired a 32 and Dakota Jarman shot 37, but the next-best score was 13 strokes worse. Danville 153, Rockcastle County 175   - At Danville, J.B. Williams shot even-par 36 to lead Danville over Rockcastle.

The Lincoln County High School Lady Patriot volleyball team was denied a victory Tuesday night as the host Lady Rockets of Rockcastle County shot down Lincoln 2-1. The Lady Patriots (1-1) took the first set 25-21, but the Lady Rockets (2-1) took flight in the second set and never looked back, rolling 25-11, 25-9.  “Rockcastle is a tough team - no shame. We were just really hoping to pull out the win, especially after that first set,” Lincoln coach Amanda Massey-Wiles said.  Lincoln never trailed in the opening set, keeping Rockcastle at a comfortable distance for most of the set. But Rockcastle would answer.

Lincoln County had three golfers shoot 45 or lower in the Lady Patriots' home opener at the Dix River Golf Course, but two Rockcastle County golfers shooting sub-40 rounds would help carry the visiting Lady Rockets to the match win. Rockcastle's four-man total of 174 was eight strokes better than the second-place Lady Pats, who finished at 182 in the tri-match. Clay County followed in third with 188. Hannabeth Owens and Lexi Young both carded a 39 to lead Rockcastle to the win. Keeley Goff followed with a 47 and Callie Asher and Mackenzie King both had 49. Gentry Lewis was one of the three Lady Patriots posting rounds in the low to mid 40's, leading the way with a 43. Maggie Taylor followed with a 44, and Kayla Davis finished at 45.  “I thought we played much better today than we did Tuesday (against Casey)

For the first time in 31 years, Lincoln County will be represented in the state house by one of its own. Stanford resident David Meade won the Republican primary Tuesday for the District 80 seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives. Without a Democratic challenger in the race, there will be no general election competition. Meade's 1,843 votes in Lincoln, Rockcastle and Pulaski counties gave him an edge over his closest competitor, Rockcastle preacher Mark Eaton, who garnered a total of 1,642 votes.

Danville's offense is still a work in progress, but the Admirals made some progress in the early innings Saturday. The Admirals got all but one of their hits in the first three innings, producing all the runs they would need to defeat Rockcastle County 5-2 at Admiral Field. They bounced back at the plate after getting only two hits Thursday in a win over Mercer County, but coach Paul Morse said he wanted to see them swing the bats for seven innings the way they did for three. “We got seven of our eight hits in the first three innings, and then it seemed like we kind of thought the game was 10 to 1 instead of 5 to 1,” Morse said.

Cawood Dedman scored 19 points, Savannah Taylor added 12 points and Mercer County got a big lift from its bench Tuesday to blow out visiting Rockcastle County 63-40. “This was a very good win for us. Savannah played sick and Catheryne (Claunch) got hurt in the second quarter and did not play the rest of the game,”¿Mercer coach Chris Souder said. “We had some kids come in and play well. It's nice to know you've got kids who can step up when others get hurt.” Kandace Gash scored nine points off the bench for Mercer (15-5)

Boyle County coach Larry French knows this: There is no way his team can fumble the ball away five times and win two weeks in a row. The Rebels did that last week and got past Knox Central. But if they cough up the ball like that this week against Rockcastle County, it could mean an early exit from the playoffs. “I think they slipped in and put something on the ball,” joked French, whose team will play Rockcastle on Friday in Mount Vernon in the second round of the class AAAA playoffs.

Boyle County fell to 3-0 with a 25-15, 25-19 loss to Rockcastle County on Monday night at Danville. Emily Hall had 12 kills for Boyle, Griffin Blevins had two aces, Megan Holderman had five digs and Lisa Talbot had four.

Not only did Sara Hammond leave a legacy at Rockcastle County, but she helped establish that 12th Region girls basketball could hold its own with any region in the state. The talented Rockcastle senior not only led the Rockets to a 36-1 season and the school’s first state championship, but she was also named Kentucky’s Miss Basketball, The Associated Press Player of the Year and Kentucky Gatorade Player of the Year. Her final high school honor was recently being named a Parade Magazine All-American — the same honor Boyle County’s Lamar Dawson earned in football.