The dominance of the Beechwood Tigers girls cross county team showed at the Class 1, Region 4 awards ceremony with the Tigers taking seven of the top eight spots.
The defending Class A state champs won the race soundly with 19 points, improving on last year’s region championship score of 22 in the region meet at Sherman Elementary School in Grant County on Saturday. St. Henry finished second with 70 points.
“After how they performed at region last year, we didn’t really think it could get any better than that and they proved us wrong,” said Patricia Sturgeon, Beechwood head coach. “They came out and put up nearly a perfect score at region, which is pretty impressive.”
Sophomore Lily Parke led the way for the Tigers winning in 19:48.17. Parke improved last year’s individual region championship time of 20:29.39 by more than 40 seconds.
“It was great. I felt strong, just happy to have a good day,” Parke said. “I went out and went for it. I knew if I wanted to stay out front, I had to keep going and take it one step at a time.”
The same six runners from last year’s state championship team ran in the race. The only difference is sophomore Nora Wilke joined them, taking fourth place in 21:14.02. The other scorers were junior Charli Gerrein at third in 20:54.87, junior Annie Harris at fifth in 21:15.45 and the lone senior of the seven in Catie Hazzard in sixth at 21:17.53. Junior Lana Holt and Isabel Ginter followed right behind then in seventh and eighth at 21:17.95 and 21:19.15, respectively.
“It really helps us push each other because we run together as a pack at practice,” Gerrein said. “Then the race is just like practice because we can work together. It’s hard when we’re running by ourselves. But when we’re running together, we can just push each other. You feel the energy around you.”
The only runner not from Beechwood on the podium was Holy Cross eighth grader Maggie Durrett. She took second in 20:33.21.
“It feels good. I look at the person in front of me and try to stay consistent,” Durrett said. “I don’t think about how much I have left and just keep going. It comes easy after being in multiple races and being up there. I know how to get myself to be the best that I can.”
The Indians finished third with 82 points. Villa Madonna, Bishop Brossart and Walton-Verona also qualified for state as a team. The five individuals not on the top five teams that qualified for state were Covington Latin seniors Monica Juelg, Kaylee Johnsonbaugh, Newport Central Catholic junior Mary Kennedy, Williamstown junior Cameron Reynolds and Bellevue junior Gracie Riggs-Pez.
“(Durrett) is a great example to the rest of the girls,” said Joe Nielander, Holy Cross coach. “She has a bright future in front of her.”
The boys came down to a hundredth of a second for the team title. Bishop Brossart and Villa Madonna tied for first place at 46 points, but Bishop Brossart won the tiebreaker because the sixth runner finished 30th compared to 42nd for the Vikings. This marked the first region championship for the Mustangs since 2014.
“When you race in Northern Kentucky, you race against teams a number of times throughout the season,” said Chris Davis, Brossart head coach. “We’ve run against Villa Madonna several times and they’ve beaten us every time. We finally got them (Saturday).”
Bishop Brossart senior Nathan Ruth won the individual crown in 16:36.66 after finishing second last year. Ruth improved on last year’s time of 16:52.71 by just more than 16 seconds.
“I tried to go out and lead it,” Ruth said. “But I thought that was a bad idea because I fizzled a lot sooner than I thought I would. When the Beechwood runner passed me, I just tried to go with him and out to the finish. Usually, you can go out and find someone who’s a bit faster than you and you can just stick right behind him. But if you’re alone like I was, you just go out and ran whatever feels comfortable.”
Beechwood senior Samson Weldemichael finished runner-up in 16:40.18. St. Henry seniors Jeff Stewart and Lake Durrett took the next two spots in 17:04.23 and 17:10.27.
“I was right behind (Ruth) the whole time,” Weldemichael said. “I tried to catch him. But it’ll be a great race at state. It takes a lot of work in the offseason. It finally paid off.”
But the Vikings took the next four spots starting with junior Ethan Martin at fifth in 17:17.35. Junior Mark Antrobus, senior Adam Kolar and sophomore Brendan Ramdass followed Martin in 17:23.58, 17:30.41 and 17:34.71, respectively.
“I think helping each other get passed the next person and pushing each other along rather than just focusing on yourself is a big part of how we run as a team,” Martin said. “We do run on our own often times. We keep an eye on each other in terms of health and mentality, trying to boost each other up rather than bring them down.”
Brossart junior Griffin Hill crossed the finish line in ninth in 17:50.58, followed by Bellevue junior Nick Long in 17:57.71, before the Mustangs finished the scoring taking the 11th through 13th spots. Senior Nick Heck, freshman Colin Glasgow and eighth grader Sam Vandewater ran the race in 17:57.78, 17:59 and 18:00.52, respectively.
Villa Madonna sophomore Alex Chadwick took 20th in 18:32.97, a hundredth of a second away from being 19th and the Vikings as region champs. Brossart senior Ryan Clines crossed the finish line in 30th place in 19:12.04 and Villa Madonna’s Jacob Thornberry finished 42nd in 20:42.74.
“We treat it like a family and we try to be together in our races and everything we do on race day, at practice,” said Brian Rapien, Villa Madonna head coach. “They’re very good friends. We work really hard trying to pack run.”
St. Henry, Beechwood, Williamstown and Walton-Verona qualified for state as a team with 61, 120 and 129 points, respectively. Dayton senior Eric Solano, Holy Cross senior Parker Deaton, Calvary Christian senior Lucas Toro and Covington Latin junior Russel Johnsonbaugh also qualified for state individually with Long.
The state meet returns to the Kentucky Horse Park located just north of Lexington this year. The Class 1A boys race is Saturday at 10 a.m. and the girls race is at 10:45 a.m.