August 30, 2012 @ Asbury College in Wilmore, KY
Results
On a day that was nearing 90 degrees with the sun beating down there were some pretty strong middle school results in the Chick-Fil-A Invitational.
I didn't watch the middles school girls race unfold but it seems the results were dominated by younger girls. The top 3 and 8 of the top 10 were 6th grade and under. The top performance (and 4th best time in 10 years) was turned in by 5th grader Anastasia Newsome from Rineyville in Hardin County. Anastasia won by 18 seconds over a pack of 4 Beaumont runners. Beaumont won the team title over Woodford by a good margin with the 2-5 runners (Rhayna Bailey, McKyla Harsbarger, Annie Vanderberg and Meron Roach) and their 5th runner at 17th, their 6th runner at 20th and the 7th and 8th runners at 27th and 28th. 3 of those top 4 runners are 6th graders. Look out elementary state meet! STRONG team performance. Woodford also had a nice bunch up front with Kendall Hayes (6th grade) in 6th, Regan Martin in 8th, Genna Ringler (6th grade) in 21st and then a pack of 3 at 23rd (Paige Davis - 5th grade), 24th (Sissy Spasova - 6th grade), and 25th (Jodie Smith). Woodford only lacked the punch that Beaumont had up front. Kasey Fields of Lafayette in was in 7th and Boyle County had a nice 1-2 punch at 9th and 10th with Abby Carter and Ally Anderson helping their team to a 3rd place finish.
In the boys race the Lafayette 8th grade standout Doug Burris led wire to wire and repeated as the individual champion with an outstanding time of 10:22.89. Prior to this race only one other boy broke 11:00 (at 10:57) in the last 10 years and Mr. Burris broke it by 37 seconds. He was chased closely most of the race by Mikah Bailey from East Jessamine who was chased most of the race by Brennan Perkins from Pulaski. Perkins passed Bailey at the end and both of them turned in very respectable times at 10:36 and 10:38. Again on a course where the previous best time in the last 10 years was 10:57. Another Lafayette standout Thomas Hill was in the second pack of about 10 runners most of the race but was the strongest at the end to turn in a 10:49 and take 4th by 25 seconds over cross town rival Harrison Owens from Bryan Station. Another Lafayette runner, Patrick Railey , took 10th place but with only 4 runners they did not post a team score. Beaumont won the team title by a slim margin on the strength of the 6th and 7th place runners Kyle Bradshaw and Jonathon Cole. Beaumont put their big pack at 21, 25, 26, 29, 36, 40 and 42nd. Casey County was 2nd on the team side lead by a 12th place finish from Chase Williams and a 14th place finish from Jonathan Gillock. Their pack was at 22, 23, 24, right in there with Beaumont's pack. Pulaski County took third place with 4 runners mixed in the top 19 but their 5th runner down at 50th. Rounding out the top 10 individual boys was Keith Harrison from Woodford at 8th and Zach Flener at 9th. Unlike the girls race, 11 of the top 12 in this race were 8th graders.
On the Varsity race, the hot weather certainly took its toll. The varsity girls race was very strung out at the front. Nikki Coffey from Boyle county came through the mile with a 10 second lead but was overtaken in the middle of the race by the eventual winner Hannah Herd from Christian Academy of Louisville. This course has a +51 rating and with 90 degree weather the times were nothing to brag about but the margin of victory was. The spread of times from 1-2-3-4-5-6 place finishers was 18-41-6-14-33 seconds. Hannah's winning time was 21:09.16 but the pack didn't really start coming in until 23 minutes lead by 6th place finisher Gabriella Sabino who lead her team to a comfortable 21 point team victory. Gabriella was helped by the rest of the Madison Central pack who finished 10th (Anna Marshall), 11th, 14th and 15th. Pulaski County finished 2nd in the team points lead by 4th place finisher Alyssa Hyden. Pulaski's scoring group was 12th 13th 17th and 31st. These two teams will see each other all year long as both are in Region 7 of AAA. Pulaski had the team win last year and Madison Central made a statement in this race that the Region is wide open. The Christian Academy team had a strong showing with a third place finish. Race winner Herd was helped along by 5th place finisher Callie Donaldson and 10th place finisher Alli Lawson. Those three finishers were strong but 4th and 5th place scorers were 41st and 43rd overall. Rounding out the top 10 individuals was Nelson County's Alyssa Hyden at 4th, Lauren Guilfoil from Bryan Station at 7th and Kayla Moore from Nelson County in 8th.
Much like the girls varsity race, the boys winning times were nothing to brag about (17:40.62.) The race started strong with Alex Beckerson (Burgin), Mason Blevins (Pulaski County) and I believe it was Cole Grecco (Garrard County) pulling away, trading the lead and coming through the mile at about 5:10-5:15. A large pack followed at 5:25-5:30. The lead 3 stayed together well ahead of the chase pack until the 2 mile where Beckerson pulled up and dropped out of the race. Blevins stayed strong in the 3rd mile and won with a comfortable margin of 22 seconds over a late surge by 2nd place Morgan Stevens of Pulaski County and 3rd place Mason Crump of Madison Central. Grecco slipped back to 4th. The team race was dominated by 3A powerhouse Pulaski County. Pulaski's score of 29 was a 51 point win over second place Christian Academy of Louisville. Pulaski put their scorers at 1st, 2nd, 5th (Austin Hyden), 11th and 13th where Christian Academy had only 2 in the top 15. The rest of the top 10 individuals were spread among several teams with AJ Ross (Christian Adademy)6th, Even Staviski (Bath County) 7th, Taylor Jamison (Boyle County) 8th, Austin Bolling (Letcher Central) 9th and Austin Anderson (Boyle County) 10th. Madison Central took 3rd place with a score of 96.