Aug 27, 2014

CHICK-FIL-A INVITATIONAL

August 26, 2014 @ Bluegrass Sportsman League in Wilmore, KY

Results

Videos

Girls Varsity Race	Boys Varsity Race	Girls Varsity Race (Stationary at the 1-mile)	Boys Varsity Race (Stationary at the 1-mile)
Nikki Coffey Interview	Brennan Fields Interview

Meet Results

Girls Highlights

5,000 Meter Run - Nikki Coffey (Boyle County) 20:51.23 SB;

Boys Highlights

5,000 Meter Run - Brennan Fields (Madison Central) 16:53.98 SB; Austin Anderson (Boyle County) 17:33.20 SB; Griffin Sexton (Madison Central) 17:38.56 SB;

Chick-Fil-A Invitational Recap

Several years in a row this meet has kicked-off coverage for me for the Cross-Country season. It’s trademarks are hot, humid weather, a difficult course, and some of Central Kentucky’s finest opening their seasons. This year’s edition of the meet contained all of those elements and was a pleasant late-August meet. The course has changed to a new location because renovations to Asbury’s baseball facilities cut off part of their course on campus, but was almost unanimously more difficult than the previous one.

Girls Varsity Race

Nikki Coffey of Boyle County jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. She crossed the mile in around 6:08 and at that point, only Ivanna Sabino of Madison Central, who crossed the mile in 6:13, had a shot at catching her. Several grueling hills later and Nikki found herself alone and racing against the clock at the 2 mile, where she crossed in around 12:30. The final mile of the course was probably the most arduous for all the runners as it covered all three of the large hills that was scattered across the course. Nikki held her place, however, and crossed the finish line in 20:51, a very solid time for an early-season, hot, hilly course. Sabino earned Runner-Up with a respectable 21:16 ahead of her teammates Melanie Manning in 3^rd, Alexa Snyder in 4^th, and Julia Manning in 5^th. With 4 runners in the top 5, it was no surprise that Madison Central easily took the team title with 27 points. A final note from this race: immediately after she finished, Nikki Coffey took her spikes off and raced back down the side of the course to cheer on the rest of her young teammates. She has done this every meet I have witnessed her run and is a great example of what it means to be a leader on a cross country team!

Boys Varsity Race

The final race of the day started out at a blazing pace as Mikah Bailey of East Jessamine led the first half mile of the race and almost caught up to the pace cart several times. Eventually Brennan Fields took control of the race and crossed the mile around 5:05 and really pushed the pace for about 2000m. He crossed the 2 mile in an impressive 10:03, running close to even splits for the first two miles. Again, similarly to the girls race, the final mile really took a toll on the athletes and at the top of the hill where the 1-mile was located, Brennan looked exhausted, but still in a comfortable lead. Behind him, Austin Anderson of Boyle County had a really great race and actually seemed to gain ground on Fields over the last mile. It was a consistent performance on a grueling course. Fields was able to finish strong and break 17, officially finishing in 16:53. Anderson was 2^nd in 17:33, followed by Griffin Sexton from Madison Central in 3^rd, Seth Richardson of Madison Central in 4^th, and Brennan Perkins of Pulaski County in 5^th. Madison Central pulled off the double team victory with 45 points over Boyle County’s young team who had 71 points. Boyle’s regional rivals, West Jessamine, came in 3^rd and had great performances from their top 3 athletes, coming ahead of Boyle’s 2nd.