There are only a few Saturdays of the entire cross-country season that have that combination of great weather, great competition, and a fast course. Today was one of those days at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park and we may have seen times today that forecast what could be ahead for those athletes that show well at the state meet and those that will race beyond the state championships. Looking at the results, you will see that almost all of the athletes that we have been watching from week-to-week ran their fastest times of the year, and those that didn’t will have question marks surrounding their health at this point in the season. There is a ton of information to unravel to fully understand the scope of the happenings today so bear with me as I want to give some facts about everything.
Last night kicked off the big meet weekend with middle school and elementary races, but there were other meet festivities occurring as well. At Trinity High School, the Shamrocks hosted several of the out-of-state teams for a dinner that gave all the parties involved a chance to socialize with athletes with similar interests from several different states. Tupelo of Mississippi, Carmel of Indiana, Heritage Christian of Indiana, and Oak Ridge of Tennessee all were able to get involved and enjoy some Kentucky hospitality. It was a nice gesture to thank the squads for making the trip and get them some much needed fuel for the races the next day. North Oldham’s group hosted the girls from Hilliard Darby last weekend in much the same way and it struck me as a great thing that these teams are doing to allow other states to experience the state of Kentucky in a new and different way: by actually talking to our residents. By all accounts, it has been a good experience and will be something that will be continued in the future.
The Carmel Greyhounds came in with expectations. They knew they were good on both sides, but they had raced very few of the teams they saw this weekend previous to today, so there was still an expectation that they would be able to compete for the win in all the races, and, if they did lose a race, it would be one that they lost by a small margin. Looking through the results now, though, there wasn’t a single race where they even remotely struggled to claim a team title. They kicked it off in the Open Boys Race which included most teams’ JV runners, but St. Xavier sent Thomas Mann out with the hopes that he wouldn’t get in over his head with the fast early pace. The hope was that he would run 16:30 and maybe get a win in the process, but, mostly, that he would make another step in the right direction towards joining the team for their postseason run. Mann would have to fight off the six Carmel Greyhounds that broke 17 minutes in this race, but he did in running 16:26 to get the win. I’ll talk about how that would have affected the team scores in the varsity race later, but clearly, it gives St.X a great Ace in the hole. For Carmel, their squad looked calm and focused moving up in the second half of the race to move into position for a final charge late that would capture the team title for them.
There was also a chance for the freshman teams to get involved and make some noise as some of these squads brought some very talented freshmen harriers in. The Louisville area has been watching Connor Sheryak of St. Xavier and Jacob Thomson of Louisville Holy Cross battle back in forth in several different races with Sheryak having won them all thus far. Today, though, the Carmel squad was thrown into the mix, as was Burgin’s Alex Beckerson, who has battled with both Franklin County’s Robert Sandlin and Western Hills Daniel Thurston in some smaller invitationals earlier this year. Out early and pushing the pace was Beckerson, and at the two mile mark, it appeared that he would take home the title as he looked relaxed and controlled at that point. Tailing him were two athletes from Carmel and Jacob Thomson, while Sheryak was in limbo a bit further back. Tretez Kinniard of Butler and a slew of Carmel, St. Xavier, and Trinity harriers were taking advantage of their opportunity to compete against some great competition their own age and charging forward towards the end of the race. Coming to the end, though, it was Thomson and a Carmel runner moving past Beckerson in the end and battling to the line as Patrick Appleton of Carmel claimed the title in what appeared to be 16:10, while Thomson looked like he came through in 16:11. Beckerson was only a few seconds back in third and Sheryak charged hard to finish 4th in front of Carmel’s 2nd. Team results came down with Carmel in first, St. X in 2nd, Trinity 3rd, and Butler 4th, as Carmel’s depth was too much.
That sets the stage for what was an awesome race among the varsity boys. There were more than a handful of individuals that entered with hopes of fighting for the individual win, but only three or four teams that felt like they might have a shot to hang with Carmel. Early, it was Oak Ridge’s John Sharpe going to the front. He recognized that he might be out a bit quick in his first race of the year, “It was the first race of the year so you are always a little jumpy. (The Oak Ridge runners) got out a little too hard. I think we were the top four places after 200 meters, which we probably shouldn’t be with everybody. I got out to the 200 and I was like, ‘Uh-oh,’ but it gives you a good place to be.” Sharpe talked about there being a group of seven guys at the mile as the group came through the mile in 4:45, which gives the runners the confidence that a fast time is coming.
As the race moved to the halfway mark, things hadn’t changed much up front as there were still about 10 athletes in contention and the list was a long one. At the forefront was Carmel’s Chris Walden, Ryan Eaton of Greenwood, Justin House of Apollo, Sharpe of Oak Ridge, Max Holman of Tupelo, Jake Wildenmann of Trinity, Tyler Byrne of North Harrison, and Stacey Eden of Shelby County. Hanging on the back of the pack were Trevin Peterson and Jacob McIntyre of Walton Verona, and Ryan Smith of Dixie Heights, all of whom deserve some credit for the impressive preformances that have put together recently and the fact that we have constantly been messing up McIntyre’s name on our website. Our sincerest apologies, Jacob and it shouldn’t happen again.
Carmel was busy doing what they seem to do an incredible job of all day: move in the second half. In every race that I watched, I couldn’t tell if they were going to do the damage that they were expected to according to their times. Standing at the finish line in each race, though, they moved up incredibly well throughout the second half to bring home the title. This race was no different and as you look through the results, Carmel’s 2nd and 3rdweren’t in the top 10 at the halfway point, but at the line, they had found their way in.
Tyler Byrne was the star of the day individually, though, as he continued an incredible season for North Harrison running a course record 15:09.78 for the win. He has run among the best in Indiana and beat everyone he has raced this season, but he didn’t know all the athletes that he would face here and that made him come out more conservative here. “I just went out with the lead pack and tried to hang with the lead pack for the first mile or so. Not knowing the other runners, you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, you’re just kind of holding up , trying to stay with the lead pack. At two miles or so, just crank up with intensity a little bit, and it turned out pretty good.” Byrne, whose brother is in his 5th year running for Louisville, also brings in a strong team that put four under 16:20 on the day. They are hoping to improve upon their 10th ranking in the state of Indiana and, according to Byrne, have hopes of placing in the top five at the state meet this year.
Ryan Eaton of Greenwood, was second on the day in 15:16.15, just in front of a group of three out-of-staters in Chris Walden of Carmel. Max Holman of Tupelo, and John Sharpe of Oak Ridge. Eaton felt good about the performance, even though it was clear that he had wanted to claim the repeat win. “I haven’t ran the times that I have been wanting this year, and I just knew that this was going to be the race to do it. Just thinking about last year, that’s the mentality I had coming in… Every race this year so far, I’ve run about 20 seconds faster than I did the previous year, so I was hoping to be 20 seconds faster today and it was about that because I ran 15:32 last year, so it was about 20 seconds , so I was happy with that. I’ve been wanting to get down around 15, hopefully by the end of the year 15 flat or lower.”
Carmel’s 2nd and 3rd runners came through as bookends to Trinity’s Jake Wildenmann, who had an incredible race running 15:34, and that really sealed the deal in the team race. It was just very impressive to look at the race at the halfway point and not think that Carmel was in position to win easily, only to see them move so well in the last portion and pass some very strong runners to move into the top 10. The Greyhounds would score just 68 points overall, as their 4th and 5th runners were 16:06 and 16:26, placing in the first 35 overall. Numbers six and seven were in before 16:50 had fully passed and the deed was done, but there was plenty more to be discovered about the happenings in this race.
Apollo’s Justin House came through in 9th place, confirming that he still has it and is among the top five cross-country runners in the state, but the big surprise was Ryan Smith, who appeared just behind House at the finish line, placing 10th overall in 15:43 (the same time as House). Smith’s emergence this fall has been swift and under the radar until the last two weekends that included two big PRs for his cross country career. Nick Anderson of Anderson (OH) came through next and was followed closely by Stacey Eden of Shelby County, Trevin Petersen of Walton Verona, and Will Mullett of Lexington Christian Academy. There had been questions about Eden after his third place finish last week and rumors of injury swirled, but this was a great bounceback race for him. Petersen and Mullett highlights what is becoming an incredible race for the Class A individual title here in Kentucky. James Maglasang of St. Mary returns as the defending state champion, but both of these guys, along with Jacob McIntyre of Walton Verona who was just four seconds behind the pair, have been very impressive early running some very fast times and mixing it up with the big names in the state.
Talking with Petersen and McIntyre, they were focused on mixing it up with the leaders, “Just go in with a positive attitude, can’t be intimidated by anybody. Just go with the lead guy.” With the Walton Verona group coming down to the Louisville area a good amount early, they feel like they are reaping the benefits of a more competitive schedule, “We are getting more competition down here, way more competition. No offense to Northern Kentucky, though. I think we are getting used to a faster pace going out, being more confident going with the lead guys. So, its going to help us be more confident and keep a strong pace going forward.” McIntyre came into the season as one of the returning favorites in Class A, but was dealing with shin splits over the summer and at the end of the summer, then coming back a bit too quickly led to some IT band issues. Five weeks of running, though, have put him him in good position going forward.
As for the rest of the results, they are worth breaking down. Just a few ticks past McIntyre came St. Xavier’s first runner and today that was Ian McCaslin, who crossed just before teammate Jackson Carnes. Carnes was returning from an injury that has held him out of competition for two weeks. Matt Hillenbrand, last weeks’ Rumble Through the Jungle champion, was St. Xavier’s 6th runner today in 61st place overall and doesn’t really give us a clear picture of what this squad is capable of going forward. With Thomas Mann being added to the team scores over their actual 5th runner, St. Xavier’s team score drops by about 15 points, add to that the inclusion of a healthy Hillenbrand and possibly even the fast-improving freshman Connor Sheryak, and St. Xavier suddenly looks much different then the scoring five that we witnessed today. It should be interesting to see what comes from this results going forward as they look towards Great American in two weeks.
The biggest surprise of the entire day, in my opinion, though, was the performance of the host Trinity Shamrocks varsity boys’ squad. Jake Wildenmann’s run was incredible as he started to show what many people expected from him after seeing him shine a bit last fall. This was a big step for him and his teammates this year, though, as they put together something that more than a few teams would envy with their split from their two through five runners. Wildenmann scored a 7 to start the team score, but there wasn’t another runner in green and white stripes until the clock read a time just under 16:30. In a span of 8 places and just 7 seconds, though, the squad had four athletes cross the finish line and lock up a very nice second place finish. Colin Medley led the group across, while Dillon Raidt was the 5th man on a day, when Nick Tallarico and Zach Stewart showed a vast improvement over their previous runs this season and brought some pride to the Rocks on a course that has served as the home to their invite for several years now. Going forward, it will be interesting to see what this team is capable of as the group’s 6th runner, Ben Finley today, wasn’t far behind, crossing in just 16:40 and that depth matches that of any other squad in the state this far.
North Harrison scored 149 to finish five points back in 3rd place, while St. Xavier was 4th with 152 points. A big gap followed back to Apollo’s team at 215, just one point in front of Oak Ridge’s squad and 14 ahead of Anderson (OH). Greenwood, New Albany (IN), and Heritage Christian (IN) rounded out the top ten teams on the day.
Looking at some more information on the Kentucky front, there were several more things to look through going forward. Apollo’s top three athletes looked incredibly strong today and they would probably match-up rather well with the Conner team that made the trip to the Louisville area last weekend. Greenwood’s third runner Jared Skrabacz didn’t look nearly as good as he has in some results we have seen thus far, but neither did Greenwood’s fourth and fifth runners. They have big questions going forward if they have hopes of a top five finish this year. St. Henry’s boys made their first trip south and looked good enough to convince me that they should be the prohibitive favorites in Class A the rest of the year, while North Oldham again took a step forward as they ran without Taylor Sanders and still handled all the Class AA teams at the meet. The first Class AA finisher of the entire meet was Haile Jemane of Central, but North Oldham’s Colin Grandon was less than a second behind. Darius Berry of Butler had a rough race as well and it might be time to hit the panic button with this squad, though I doubt that Coach Brandon Lesher is losing control of that team situation. Expect them to round back into form when the postseason rolls around.
Moving over to the girls’ races, it all started with the Open Race and Carmel’s ladies set the tone early in this one as well. There were no varsity athletes from any Kentucky schools in this race, of note, so that gave Carmel all the advantage it needed. Their squad led off with Ellie Taff running 19:56 for the win, and their 6th runner was across the line in 8th place overall as Devika Chakrabarti ran 21:04. A dominant showing as the golden singlets crossed the line in a flurry and allowed us to move on to the next race pretty quickly. Sacred Heart placed second scoring 63 to Carmel’s 18, while St. Henry, Tupelo (MS), and Oak Ridge (TN) battled to 3rd, 4th, and 5th places respectively.
The girls’ freshman race was interesting, if only for the intrigue that it added. duPont Manual’s Cassidy and Kristen Hale put on a show as the pair ran 18:53 and 19:13 to go 1-2 easily as the 3rd place finisher was 59 seconds back. We will discuss how those results change the team picture for Manual’s squad later as it appeared almost intentional that the group didn’t want anyone to get an idea of how they would match-up in the varsity race. Cassidy’s time would have placed her 11th overall, while Kristen’s time would have adjusted her finish to 16th overall if her sister was included. Clearly, things would have been different. Outside of those two, though, it was more Carmel as the ladies claimed the next five spots overall before duPont put three more athletes in the next four finishers. In the closest team race that Carmel faced all day, they still prevailed over duPont Manual 25-31.
Now, to the varsity race, where Carmel’s Renee Wellman came in with intentions of breaking 18 minutes on a course where she had brought home the individual title last year in 18:11. On the other side, though, was Emma Brink of host Sacred Heart Academy who placed 2nd here last year in 18:16 and had her own intentions of avenging her loss and breaking 18 minutes. Early on, it didn’t look like Wellman would ever get into the race against Brink as the mile was reached with Brink and Kaitlin Snapp of Danville together, while Ashley El Rady and Wellman gave chase. Caterina Karas of Shelby County got out well and was in the mix up front, as were a couple of Assumption runners and several Carmel runners, although through four runners, it looked like a convincing lead for Assumption over Carmel at the halfway point. Remember, though, that this team used the same gameplan successfully all day, and it wasn’t any different here.
The group from Carmel just listened to their coach as he preached a message of: “Keep moving up.” The group did just that and they would make some noise as the race finished, but it was all about Brink at the front.
Reaching the final straight away with 17:15 on the clock, she looked up and powered forward, chasing a time that had eluded her here before. “Our goal today was to definitely have fun, run a good race, and try our best. I knew, temperature-wise, it was going to be good. It was a very fast course, and I knew all the Kentucky girls: Kaitlin Snapp, Maria Frigo, Anna Bostrom, they would all be here. As well we Carmel and Oak Ridge from Tennessee, so I knew the competition was going to be there…. It was a good feeling at the mile and a half mark to know to push it. Coach Heim just said, ‘Brinky, now, let’s go.’ I was thinking, ‘Ok, I can do it.’Coming down the stretch, I saw that clock ticking down and I just knew I had to push it to get under 18 because I knew, split-wise, it was setting right, so it was a very, very exciting day.” Brink and the Sacred Heart squad have some positive thoughts going forward as the team showed well here, but they felt that they made another step towards improvement today. They will take a couple trips up to Ohio in the coming weeks for the Mid East Meet of Champions and a meet at Cincinnati Elder, so we will know plenty more about their squad, and about what Brink can do, after they match-up with some strong talent at those two meets.
Wellman hung on for second, but was well off of her goal of breaking 18 minutes. Her teammates did exactly what they were supposed to behind her moving well in the second half of the race to claim 6th and 8th places as well as 15th and 32nd overall to round out their scoring five. Their first four athletes were all under 19:15 and they finished with six athletes under 20 minutes in the varsity and another in the Open race to total seven separate sub-20 efforts on the day.
In third was Kaitlin Snapp of Danville, running her first big meet since the invitational 3200 on the track at the Eastern Relays last April. In that race, she faded badly and a stress reaction surfaced, causing her to take a good amount of time off. A long time away from racing and a decision to drop soccer this fall has brought her a long way and she had looked strong in dominating several small meets in the Lexington area this fall. Today, though, things were different, “It felt pretty good, but it felt most different in the second mile when Emma pulled away and that’s when you really have to push, so without competition it’s hard to do. I really felt it there and at the end with the kick…. I was looking for the win, but I think that I just try not to expect too much because I have been coming off of injuries. It’s a really good race to compare to where I was last year, I think I was 10 seconds off from last year, so I was happy about that, so that means I only have a little bit more to improve to where I can really get back.” Snapp returns as the state champion in Class A for as long as I can remember and, also, ran incredibly well at Foot Locker South last fall, so with her goals firmly set on repeating those two things, she has to be feeling great after this performance.
Assumption’s team score kicked off next with Ashley El Rady placing fourth overall and her teammates didn’t leave her lonely in the chute for long. Sara Davis followed in 10th, and Allison Riedling was close behind her in 13th place. Caroline McCasline crossed at 19:33 to place 25th and then the waiting for number five started. Oak Ridge, St. Henry, Sacred Heart, duPont Manual, all put multiple runners across the line before the next light blue singlet was seen nearing the finish, but Amanda Vokoun got the job done crossing in 20:38 to place 63rd overall and lock up 2nd place for Assumption. The squad has improved greatly in each meet this year as their varsity group starts to form more concretely, but Coach Barry Haworth knows that as the season goes on, the girls will need a fifth runner to step up and close that gap if they want to bring home their third straight state title.
Elizabeth Anderson of duPont Manual came across the line in 5th gave their squad reason to be optimistic about their chances at claiming the state title in Kentucky this fall. Already mentioned, were duPont Manual’s two freshmen stalwarts, and in the varsity race, Anderson was followed by Sarah Barker in 18th overall and Cristin Palmer in 28th overall. Adjusting the team scores duPont Manual’s score drops to something along the lines of 74 compared to Carmel’s 58 and Assumption’s 107. Clearly, the Class AAA title is still open for debate and should make things interesting going forward, especially since there is no expectation for Assumption and duPont Manual to face off at full strength again until the state meet. It will at least leave us something to debate for awhile going forward.
7th place went to Caterina Karas who looked sharp again after two weeks away from racing. She looks to be a legitimate top five runner in Class AAA and is starting to look like a top five runner in the entire state.
Maria Frigo finished 9th overall to start the scoring for St. Henry’s girls. This was the first chance for them to face many of the schools in Kentucky at full strength this year and Frigo rose to the challenge, showing a glimpse of the impressive talent she has showcased in the past year during cross-country and track. Teammate Ashley Svec, who had been with or in front of Frigo in every race this season, crossed 22nd overall, while the next four Crusaders all crossed between 19:55 and 20:24 to carry them to a third place finish on the day. The squad looked good, but it will be interesting to see how the team responds if Frigo is, in fact, returning to form. She will have a long way to go to close on Kaitlin Snapp, but clearly, she is making progress.
Team results saw Oak Ridge fit in fourth just four points ahead of DuPont Manual, while Sacred Heart Academy came in 6th overall and McAuley (OH) was 7th.
Impressions coming out of this meet included two of the state’s best having interesting results today. Anna Bostrom of Woodford County has been dealing with some injuries and finished 23rd overall in 19:29. If she can stay healthy from here on out, she should only continue to improve. Danielle Hoop was also competing today, and the Owen County harrier was 62nd in 20:37. Hoop consistently is a slow starter, but if last year’s results are any indication, she should be fine when it comes time for the results to count. Jenna Rodgers of CAL looked very strong again, placing 11th overall and she makes a strong case to challenge for the individual title in Class AA this fall.
Everything went relatively well on a beautiful day for running and, though there will almost assuredly be corrections to the results still, the results were very telling. Thanks for coming out and enjoying some great competition and congratulations to all the competitors.