Derby City Athletic Club AAU National Runner-up Team
Rock Hill South Carolina, December 1, 2012
For the third consecutive year the Derby City Athletic Club with runners from all over the state of Kentucky was the AAU Cross Country National Runner-up team, narrowly missing out on the championship to the California Comets 117-113. Having been National Champions in 2009 and Runners-up in 2010 and 2011, the team from Derby City came to Rock Hill for the AAU Cross Country Championship with one goal in mind, an overall team national championship.
According to David Flaugher, Derby City Athletic Club President and coach, “we had a fun month of training with a great group of kids leading up to the meet, we had fantastic weather for training in Louisville for November, and we were ready.” The course in Rock Hill offered ideal conditions with a slightly rolling, firm and fast Bermuda grass course. Flaugher continued, “all of our teams ran great races with many runners setting PR’s.”
With several of the clubs high school members competing at NXN in Portland with Assumption and St X, and December 1 being an ACT testing day in Kentucky, fielding full teams in the high school races was a challenge. Derby City sent its first full team to the line in the Youth Girls division (13-14 year olds). The strong group got a surprise the morning of the race as team leader and state record holder Gabby Karas woke up sick and was not able to run with the team, but with strong performances from the rest of the team, the group defended its National Championship from 2011, led by Michaela Reinhart’s National Championship Performance in the 13 year old division.
The success of the day continued. The day would finish with Derby City sending 9 teams to the line in 8 races with all 9 teams achieving “Podium” performances (Top 3), a first for the club! The club had more team and individual podium finishes than any other club in attendance! Other wins included National Team Championships in Youth Boys (13-14) and Midget Boys (11-12) , National Runner-ups in Bantam Girls (9-10), Bantam Boys (9-10) Primary Boys (8 and under) and 3rd place team finishes in Midget Girls (11-12), Bantam Girls, Primary Girls (8 and under) and Primary Boys (8 and under).
The team had top 25 finishes too numerous to mention and individual podium finishes (top 8) that included: Michaela Reinhart (1st Sub-Youth Girls), Megan Buechler (7th Youth Girls), Pressley Warren (5th Midget Girls), Abigail Jones (5th Sub-Bantam Girls), Bailey Chitwood (7th Sub-Bantam Girls), Abigail Bohn (6th Bantam Girls), Chloe Bramble (6th Primary Girls), Spencer Hayden (4th Youth Boys), Nathan Sheets (7th Youth Boys), Keeton Thornsberry (7th Midget Boys), Connor Hayes (5th Sub-Bantam Boys), Josh Meiman (7th Sub-Bantam Boys), Riggs Hardy (5th Bantam Boys), Rollins Hardy (3rd Primary Boys), and Cole Serman (6th Primary Boys).
Full Results: http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=520&do=news&news_id=67388