Sep 29, 2013

GATORLAND RUN

Results

Gatorland Run: Crawford 16:14, Peters 19:14. Bullitt East's Girls win with ease.

Upon arriving at the Gatorland Run at Phil Moore Park, I was amazed at the amount of people that were there. They had to come up with alternative parking arrangements to handle the crowd. In size comparison, I’d probably put it up there with Greater Louisville from what I saw. Also, everything was immaculate- from the mile markings to the course changes for each race. The meet directors were incredibly organized and professional. They even had a person who was in charge of running to each mile marker with a clock to set up. Overall, myself and several others were thoroughly impressed.

Now, onto the start. Numerous people that were thought to be running in this race did not. Among those people were 2012 AAA State Champion Chase Geary, and basically Bowling Green’s whole Girl’s Varsity team. With Bowling Green’s girls out of the picture, the team spot was wide open.

Girls Varsity: From the gun, there was a group of three: Sierra Poppell and Abby Reburn of Bullitt East along with Emily Peters from St. Cecilia Academy. Through the mile, Peters led at 5:55 followed by Bullitt East’s duo at 5:57, and Mary Robinson of Mercy Academy at 6:04. After the mile, Peters threw a strong surge to put a big gap on her competition. At the two mile, she was at12:26, and it wouldn’t be until 12:50 where we saw Poppell. Reburn had slowed down tremendously as Lindsay LeGarde of Station Camp High School and Robinson was right on her tail at 13:05. It was apparent that East was going to win after the two mile, being that they had a majority of their runners closest to the front. Coming in solo in the last stretch was Peters, who looked to have given it her all. Peters dominated the race, finishing at 19:14. Poppell would be the only other girl to break the 20 minute barrier on the day, as she ran 19:52.

East won the race handily finishing with a spectacular 34 point. East's team is very young and is going to be a threat in the coming years.

Boys Varsity: This race went out fast, very fast. The race went out so hard that I didn’t recognize hardly any of the front runners, because they are usually not up there. Through the first mile there were several unknown faces. Leading those faces was Bret Crawford of Grayson County at 4:57 with Keith Prive of Greenwood. Another big group came through at 5:02, with Aaron Osborne of Warren East leading the pack. At the two mile the pace was much slower, with Crawford still leading at 10:31, with Logan LaGarde of Station Camp just a second behind. Mason Blevins of Pulaski County followed with 10:34. After the two mile, LaGarde tried to pass Crawford, but Crawford hung on and surged. In the end, Crawford took the victory with an impressive 16:14. LaGarde finished with a 16:28 and Blevins barely beat out Brian Menke of Covington Catholic for a third place finish with a 16:35.
Pulaski County barely got the victory over Covington Catholic, finishing one point ahead.

Middle School Girls: The entire race was between Presley Warren of Holy Name and Breanna Alderton of College View. Warren came through the mile at 5:45 and Alderton close behind at 5:49. Since Alderton had not lost this season, I kept expecting to see her pull ahead. However, this would not be the case. Warren remained strong and furthered her lead tremendously before proceeding into the home stretch. Warren's finishing time was 16:04, with Alderton at 16:17.

Middle School Boys: Clint Sherman of Bullitt East made this race his. He led from the mile, and after that no one was within striking distance of him. Not even Hunter Kurz of Daviess County Middle, who has been known to have a strong kick, could make up the amount of ground Sherman had put between them. However, Kurz was able to pass Jarrett Crawford of Grayson County before finishing, taking second. Sherman finished 11 seconds ahead of his competition at 14:06.

Junior Varsity (Mixed): Being a JV race, you never know what to expect or who is going to win. On the boys side, the race was between two teams. Those two teams were Covington Catholic, and Father Ryan. The whole front pack was flashes of blue and purple. Calvin Harrison and Jack Clunan of Father ryan ran together the entire race, and finished within a half a second of each other with Harrison getting the win (18:09). In the end result, Father Ryan beat out Covington Catholic by a single point. This would be the second time Covington Catholic would be beat by one point. The girls race was easier to determine a winner. Barren County looked very strong up front, and was lead to victory by 6th grader Leah Jesse (22:32).