It had been nine years since Covington Catholic’s cross country team competed in Class 2A.
Saturday, the Colonels gloriously returned. They won the Region 4 meet over Bourbon County, 19-47, at the Bourbon County Cross Country Course northeast of Paris.
CovCath’s win was certain from the starting line. Sophomore Joe Mayer won the 5K race in 16:34.81 minutes, a little less than two seconds ahead of fellow Colonel Michael Zechella’s 16:36.22.
“It’s awesome, great weather, having all my teammates work with me every day in practice,” Mayer said.
And the rest of CovCath’s top five? Strong – senior Nolan Bonta (17:10.56), freshman Luke McLane (17:29.88) and sophomore Jackson Germann (17:34.50) finished third, sixth and seventh, respectively.
Senior Luke Meagher was ninth in 17:42.91, and sophomore Luke O’Hara finished 14th in 18:29.
CovCath was a 2A school from 2008-2014. Colonels coach Jeremy Mosher said there’s not a lot different from 3A.
“The approach is really the same, no matter who you’re racing,” Mosher said. “You’re trying to help your athletes just be the best they can be at the end of the season. We’ve definitely has some hiccups this year as far as some injury setbacks.”
One Colonel was missing – Will Sheets, who won the state 2022 Class 3A race, is nursing a right hip injury and did not run Saturday.
“Coming out of summer, even, we had an issue in the hip that took a little while to figure out what was going on,” Mosher said.
Mosher also said Sheets could still compete in next Saturday’s state meet because he’s on CovCath’s roster, but it’s a day-to-day decision.
Mayer has been CovCath’s No. 1 runner the last couple of weeks. “We’ve been on slower courses, we’ve been on faster courses, and he keeps showing up for us and clocking times that are probably a good 45 seconds to minute faster than he was last year,” Mosher said.
Zechella has been the No. 2 runner most of the year. “He’s been the kind of kid you that you hope to find on your team … He came to us after playing some soccer and has consistently gotten better every year,” Mosher said.
Mayer and Zechella dueled for most of Saturday’s race.
“The original plan for me was to go out with the pack behind him and work my way up,” Zechella said. “I was in a gap between both the pack and Joe.
“I just made the decision, ‘I have to go up for him.’ If I get up there with him and run together, we’re going to benefit as a team from that.”
CovCath, Bourbon County, Lexington Catholic and Harrison County qualified as teams.
Lexington Catholic won the girls team title over Bourbon County, 22-42, and Bourbon County’s Bethany Simpson won the individual title. Lloyd eighth-grader Jersey Marquis was 19th in 25.39.28.
For complete results, visit: https://ky.milesplit.com/meets/575244-khsaa-region-4-class-2a-2023/results