Class 2A Boys State Championship Preview

Saturday will feature the most exciting day in KY cross country, the State Championships. All season our athletes have been building towards this point where everything is on the line. We will see great heartbreak, but also exceptional happiness. Without further ado, let's take a look at the KHSAA State Championships Class 2A Boys championship race.

For this preview, we will begin with the team title race before discussing what could be the best race the Horse Park has seen since Cole Dowdy's 2015 State Record race. On the team side, Covington Catholic stands out as the clear favorite. Covington Catholic is currently ranked 3rd across every division in Kentucky and is led by the fastest man in KY this year, Will Sheets. They are projected to put 3 boys in the Top 10, 5 in the Top 20, and 7 in the Top 25. There team average is 16:02 and they will be very hard to defeat on Saturday. However, there are others teams in contention. Another team loaded with talent is the boys of Lexington Catholic. While they lack the front runners of some of the other top teams, they make up for it in there tight pack. Lexington Catholic is currently scheduled to put 3 into the Top 15 and 5 in the Top 40. This depth is remarkable and makes them a serious team title threat. Bourbon County is another team to watch out for as they possess several awesome athletes. Currently, Bourbon is projected to have 4 top 20 finishers. This competitive 4 man pack will need to get into Covington Catholic's pack in order to threaten the team title. They will also need big performance out of their 5 man, Stephen Bryce Perraut. Perraut is currently projected to finish 38th while Covington Catholic's 5 man is projected to finish 22nd. That gap will need to be closed if Bourbon County plans to play spoiler. The final team to watch out for is Thomas Nelson. Why are they dangerous? Because they have the best duo in Class 2A with Senior Riku Sugie and Freshman Daniel Filiatreau. The pair is projected to finish in the top 5 and any time with two top 5 athletes is a podium threat.

On the individual side, there are two distinct races to watch. What I mean by that is that two athletes are racing for the win, while the other 4 front runners are racing for a Top 5 placement. The winner will likely be either Will Sheets or Riku Sugie. Last year, Sugie delivered a dominant performance winning the 2A state championship. However, Sheets has looked different this year. The Senior has not lost to a Kentucky athlete this season and hasn't lost a race on Kentucky soil. He ran 14:44 at Nike Town about a month ago and has a season average of 15:17. On the other hand, Sugie has looked very strong this year performing his best on Kentucky soil. He has two performances this season of sub 15 minutes with his season's best 14:50 coming just a couple weeks ago. Sugie's season average is 15:06 and he hasn't lost a State Championship race since his Freshman track season. Will his dominance continue or will Will Sheets deliver a spectacular performance to end the Sugie streak. Other top 5 contenders are Daniel Filiatreau, Casey Desilvey, Joe Mayer, and Samuel Herbig. All 4 have season's best within 16 seconds of each other and averages within 17 seconds. Depending on the day, any combination of these 4 could end up in the Top 5. 

Predictions from the Milesplit Team