The races at the 2020 KHSAA State Cross Country Championships brought a new aura to the event with a different venue and a set up like no other state meet. The Bourbon County Cross Country Course hosted the championships, which had been held at the Kentucky Horse Park for the last 40 years. To add to the newness, a waved start format added an additional level of interest to the races. The COVID-19 protocols made for some of these changes and the teams adjusted.
Class A boys came in with a wide-open team race and the individual competition could have gone multiple ways. However, after the first gun, Josh Meiman left nothing to doubt. At the one mile, there was a crew including Meiman, DK Schnieders, Connor Hayes, and Tomas Duncan. By the time they hit the two-mile mark, the race was Meiman's to lose. He finished with a time of 16:16 and his first state championship. His teammate, DK Schnieders was runner-up.
The Holy Cross crew took home the team title behind that 1-2 punch of Meiman and Schnieders. Their team total of 61 bested St. Henry's 83. The Crusader's top runner was Dixon Ryan in 6th place. This was Holy Cross's chance to repeat after their 2019 campaign and the 8th individual title in the last 11th years for the Cougars.
Once it was time for the Class A girls there was an obvious favorite in the Bishop Brossart ladies. What was not expected was that the individual race would not include Anna Rupp. Instead, Claire Curtsinger of Bishop Brossart broke away just before the 3K mark to take the individual title by 22 seconds. Rupp was a DNF. Curtsinger was joined in her state championship performance by her teammate Amy Klocke in second.
The team title was incredible domination by Bishop Brossart with 36 points. Their scorers were 1, 2, 3, 5, and 25. They bested the second-place team in Kentucky Country Day who had 96 points. KCD was led by Haley Schoenegge and this crew was in the second wave! The Brossart Mustangs definitely came into the day as the favorite and showed why they were a force to be reckoned with.
Class A Girls Race Video
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Class A Boys Race Video
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