Class AAA Boys leads will be going off at 1:30 pm with a big question mark at who is going to win the individual race and a school looking to win their 18th title and tie for the most in Kentucky State History.
This cross country season has shown several potential candidates to win the Class AAA title this Saturday. Coming into the post-season Oldham County’s Luke Weishaar was the favorite to win after crossing the line first at the Greater Louisville Classic, Rumble Through the Jungle, and was the first AAA runner overall at the Trinity Invitational. Last Saturday at the Region 4 Championship, Eastern’s Kyle Covert threw a monkey wrench in the whole thing. Covert won the region with a new best time of 15:40 beating Weishaar by 11 seconds. Covert, a solid but not dominant runner coming into this fall has made great strides since the Greater Louisville Classic on October 1st. Week by week he has beaten runners ranked ahead of him such as Weishaar, Patrick Gregory (Butler), and Connor Sheryak (St. Xavier.) Sheryak, a junior has been on St. Xavier’s Varsity since his freshman year and is as steady as you can get. Gregory, a sophomore will look to channel the mojo he had the first part of the season and should be in the front pack. Other runners to watch out for are Sam Lewis (St. Xavier), who won the Metro Meet of Champions two weeks ago and Chase Geary (Muhlenberg County) who won the Franklin County Invitational at the Horse Park in September.
St. Xavier is ranked #1 in AAA and will look to win their 18th Kentucky State XC Championship which would tie rival, Trinity who won last year for the most in state history. St. Xavier on paper is the easy choice to win with three of the better runners in AAA up front (Sheryak, Lewis, and Zach Beavin.) Nick Reader and Mark Johnson are typically within thirty seconds of the lead three and if that happens, they have locked the trophy down. The Tigers have handled all the Kentucky competition this fall, the closest anyone has come to beating them was at the St. X/Trinity Dual Meet when the gap was only 9 points, 23-32.
Trinity who pulled the upset over St. Xavier last year will look to work the same magic Saturday. They have Sam Meredith up front and a nice pack afterwards. To beat St. Xavier they will need one of their other runners to step up and be right around 10thplace with the rest in before 25th place and that might not even do it. Trinity cannot just focus on St. Xavier, as last week at the Region 4 Championship they were beaten by Eastern. Eastern led by the above mentioned Covert ran their best race of the season to win last Saturday. Covert should be in the top five along with senior Austin Zachary trying to score a top twelve placing. If they get both of those two up front and the pack runs like they did at the regional than second place should be theirs.
The boys of Daviess County and Head Coach Tony Rowe should never be ignored. The team has faced some adversity this fall with injuries holding back seniors Brad Sikes and Wesley Morris. They have rounded into shape at the end here with Sikes returning to finish second in the Region 1 Championship. Will Coach Rowe be able to break up the Louisville party with a group that has been really quiet this year on the state scene? Their region rival Apollo who finished right behind Daviess County in the Region 1 Championship is right there as well in the hunt. If they run their best, Apollo could challenge for a top three placing. Butler is one of the best through three runners with Gregory, Tretez Kinnaird, and Allen Matthews. For them to get into the top three they need two of them in the top five.