Not only have they claimed a cross country and indoor track and field state title this school year, but on Friday Covington Catholic pulled off the triple crown in winning the KHSAA Class 2A state track and field meet.
The Colonels scored 75 points at the University of Kentucky’s Track and Field Complex, 23 points clear of second place Mercer County. It’s their second state title in program history, also winning in 2009.
“It was a total team effort,” Colonels head coach Jeremy Mosher said. “We won two relays, it’s easy to look at Ethan Long and Will Sheets who were truly outstanding, but we picked up points in a bunch of other events and qualified guys across the board in every event but shot put. That’s the best part of it all, seeing 20-plus guys out here being a part of it.”
CovCath claimed two first place finishes on the day via their relay teams, winning the 4×200 in a time of 1:29.73 and the 4×400 with a time of 3:27.84. Running the 4×200 was Ethan Long, Jake Heitker, Garret Gallagher and Jackson Schmid and the 4×400 team was Luke Meagher, Heitker, Long and Schmid.
From there it was a full team effort as they reached the podium in a variety of events. Long finished second in both the 100 and 200-meter dash. It was a similar result from the region meet, where Long placed second behind Lexington Catholic’s Kaylib Nelson.
“Kaylib is a great athlete. I was hoping to break the school record, but it was good race overall,” Long said of the 200. “My 100 PR was 10.55 so wasn’t a PR, so still a good day overall. It feels good to win a state championship.”
Long, a senior, running career isn’t over. He’s headed to Western Carolina University to continue his academic and athletic career.
Will Sheets also reached the podium twice, finishing runner-up in the 1,600 and 3,200 meters to Thomas Nelson’s Riku Sugie. Sheets ran a 4:20.26 in the 1,600 and 9:31.04 in the 3,200.
“Riku is a good competitor,” Sheets said. “I know maybe the 2A doesn’t have as much depth, but running against him is always good.”
His teammate Joe Mayer finished third in the 3,200 (9:37.04) and fourth in the 1,600 (4:22.19).
“Today was about getting the job done today,” Sheets said. “A state title means a lot and knew we needed to finish 2-3 and that’s what we did.”
On top of the strong individual performances and the two first place finishes in the relays, the 4×800 relay team added a third place finish (8:12.54) to give them 26 points in relays. The 4×800 team consisted of Jack Salyers, Nolan Bonta, Luke McLane and Sheets.
Others adding podium finishes included Luke Meagher in the 800 in fourth place (1:59.22). Meagher’s third leg in the 4×400 helped the Colonels win the event as he got them from fourth to first for the final leg for Long.
“Before the race, Will (Sheets) came up to me and said it feels like we’re at the casino and we’re playing with someone else’s money,” Meagher said. “I was just gonna go out and run as hard as I can, it’s the fastest 400 I’ve ever ran and probably the fastest 400 I’ll ever run.”
Long got passed in the final 100 meters by Bourbon County, but put the jets on in the final 50 meters to reclaim the lead.
“Ethan doesn’t even know how good he is,” Meagher said. “He just has that tick in him when it comes to winning he feels that competitive edge and just goes.”
The state title was already sealed prior to the final event thanks to the finishes by Sheets and Mayer in the 3,200. The two knew what they had done after the event with Mayer coming up to Sheets and greeting him with a hug as they cooled down.
“We knew we needed 14 points to lock it up and let the 4×400 do their job,” Mayer said. “Glad we got it done today.”
In the girls meet, Lexington Catholic took home first place with 93 points. Christian Academy-Louisville finished second with 65 points.
Holmes earned four points in the girls meet thanks to Ja Nia Johnson in the high jump, finishing fifth in clearing five-feet on her third and final attempt.
The final track and field meet of the season takes place on Saturday with the 3A meet starting at 9 a.m.