Girls Championship
The Class 2A, Region 6 girls individual race will be fought between up and coming 8th grader Rheagan Sizemore of Mason County and junior Macy Dyer of East Carter. The two have not met previously this year and it should be a close race. Rheagan has been consistently running in the high 19’s or low 20’s most of the season, has won 3 varsity meets this year, and is coming off an 11th place finish in the middle school race at the Meet of Champions. Macy has been splitting her time between cross country and soccer, where she is also a stand out athlete. She has hit the 19’s once this year at the beginning of the season (placing 1st), but won easily in her next 2 races, also racking up three 1st place finishes this year; she is coming off a 6th place finish for the Class of 2013 the Meet of Champions. Boyd County’s Courtney Gibson is capable of being in the hunt, while fifth-ranked Boyd County will also place Darian Steele and Alliya Kautzman in the top 10 – possibly even top 5 – en route to capturing the girls’ team trophy. Cara Woods & Julia Woods (Mason Co), Abby Fearin & Julie Perkins (Fleming Co), and Kara Coldiron (Russell) look to round out the top 10 individuals. Behind Boyd Co, Mason Co should be second in the team race, with East Carter and Fleming Co also sending teams to state. Russell looks to be a long-shot to make what should be a 4-team state qualifying list.
Boys Championship
The boy’s race is too close to call on both the team and individual races. With no dominating seniors in the region, three juniors look to vie for top honors: Mason Co’s Nick Robinson, Rowan Co’s Shelly Deharte, and Russell’s Jacob Heyerly. Nick has ran a limited schedule, but 2 weeks ago at the All Area 7 meet, Nick passed and out-kicked Shelley in the home stretch, approximately 25 feet from the line, beating him by 1 second; both finished in the 16’s for the first time. Jacob Heyerly has been on Nick’s heels all season, and has consistently finished ahead of Shelley all season until the Area 7 meet. Since, then Shelley has been burning it up, coming off an impressive 6th place finish in the Meet of Champions. The second pack will have Ashland Blazer’s Austin Craft, and Russell’s Josh Riley and Ross Lane, followed closely by Blazer’s Taylor Bradley, Cameron Sanders and Tristan Kinnard. Mason Co’s Tanner Campbell also looks for top-10 finish. Overall, Mason, Russell and Ashland look to place all their top 5 runners in the top 16 spots, with Rowan’s Shelley Deharte the lone standout from any other regional team. The team race between these three could be decided by as little as 1 point and may come down to how the 5th runner for each team or even the #6 “pusher” runner performs. Russell will look for their first Regional win since 2008 while Ashland, regional champs every year since 2008, will look to continue their 3-year win streak. Mason has never won Region 6 2A since realignment in 2008 and has a remote chance to disrupt both Russell’s and Ashland’s plans. Rowan County should be the distant 4th place, state-qualifier
