September 06, 2012 @ Marshall County in Benton, KY
The Mad Marshal Dash was held at Marshall County High School on Thursday night and it was a very interesting experience. The race was only a 3200m, which is not the odd part. It had two different start lines, with complete teams drawing to start at either the A or B line. Each starting line ran a different first part of the race. At the 3/4 mile point in the race, the two courses merged together and finished at the same point.
The girls race left off the action with Paducah Tilghman sophomore Aleja Grant being the favorite. She won her first race of the season at the Heath Pirate Invitational by over a minute with pretty much the same teams competing. Grant led from the start and was all by herself when the courses merged. The Class AA #2 ranked runner cruised through the mile in 5:40 and went on to win with a 12:36.7 nearly one minute better than second place.
The battle for second was between Graves County's Josie Lavey and Anderson, along with Calloway County's Kelly Norton and Lauren Eastwood at the merge point with the Graves duo having a slight lead. Sydney Anderson ended up in second in the end followed by Calloway's Kelly Norton.
The boys race was headlined by Class A #4 Heath and #6 St. Mary. Heath had the two favorites with senior Zach Hudspeth and 8th grader Josh Grogan. After the race started the front group all from the same course was the two from Heath in third and fourth with Marcos Macis and Seth Anderson from Graves County leading. The group cruised through the mile in 5:17. Hudspeth and Grogan pulled away though as they had an nice lead coming up the hill by the band field with 1/4 mile to go. The wily veteran Hudspeth crossed the line first with a 10:58 for the 3200m race winning his second race of the year. Grogan's finished with an 11:02, while Macis and Anderson followed at 11:28 and 11:37.
One thing of note, St. Mary did beat a short-handed Heath squad led by John Higgins in 7th place. Grogan technically scored as a JV runner which would have put Heath ahead for the varsity title.
Video Coverage
Mad Marshal Dash: Girls Merging Point
Mad Marshal Dash: Aleja Grant 1/4 mile left in the race
Mad Marshal Dash: 2nd to 4th Place 1/4 Mile left in the race
Mad Marshal Dash: Boys Start
Mad Marshal Dash: Boys Courses Criss-Crossing
Mad Marshal Dash: Boys Merging Point
Mad Marshal Dash: Boys 1/5 Mile Left in the Race