Cooper cross country coach Eric Van Laningham knew it was going to be a good day when he saw what starting box his team would be running out of at the KHSAA Class 3A state cross country meet.
The No. 33 means a lot to Van Laningham. It starts with his favorite basketball player Larry Bird, evidenced by his Larry Bird socks he wore on Saturday. It also marks the year anniversary he and his wife were state champion cross country runners at Boone County in 1990.
“I knew it was a good sign when we got box 33,” Eric Van Laningham said. “It felt like there’s something going on here that’s pretty special.”
His premonition was right. His Jaguars finished runner-up, the best finish in program history. Adding even more icing to the cake was seeing his son Paul post a top five finish, placing fourth in a time of 15:41.70, the top individual finish in program history.
Paul Van Laningham wasn’t the only Cooper podium finisher, his teammate Salah Farah was 14th in 16:22.73. Noah Miller was just outside the top 15 and a medal, placing 18th in 16:27.64.
Rounding out the scoring for the Jaguars was Preston Winiger in 47th (17:04.79) and Micah Brandeberry in 56th (17:18.24). Trinity was the team champion with 95 points, Cooper with 123. Rounding out the top five were St. Xavier (192 points), North Oldham (204) and two-time defending champion Conner in fifth with 226 points.
While Conner had been the dominant force in the region over the past couple years, Cooper took that title over the past week with a win at last week’s region meet and followed it up with their performance at the Kentucky Horse Park in Georgetown on Saturday.
“It definitely helps everyone to compete against the best each week,” Eric Van Laningham said. “That was one of the weaknesses six, seven, eight years ago is that we weren’t challenged within our region. It makes us better. Our region got a lot tougher this year adding Highlands and Scott as well and hopefully that keeps building.”
Van Laningham was 51st in the state meet last year as a freshman, improving 47 spots in a season.
“Just really happy with how I performed and how everyone performed on the team,” Paul Van Laningham said. “Just the training in the offseason and growth and development has been awesome. No one really expected us to get second outside of us. The team has performed amazingly, two in the top 15, three in the top 20 and our four and five runners have been improving all season.”
The top five boys finishers were Lafayette’s James Ndayishimiye (15:27.38), North Oldham’s Adam Patel (15:32.37), Grant County’s Lincoln Herald (15:36.37), Van Laningham and Trinity’s Eli Oetken (15:45).
A strong contingent of NKY runners placed individually from ninth through 22nd starting with Conner’s Joey Carroll. Carroll’s top 10 time was 15:56.47, Ryle’s Tiger Bartlett, who owned the top time through the season coming into the meet, finished 10th (15:57.59). Campbell County’s Jonathan Christopher (16:10.68) placed 11th, Conner’s Nathan Hopper (16:14.65) was 13th and Farah 14th as they all claimed a podium spot and a medal.
Following Miller in 18th was Highlands’ Malcolm Robertson in 22nd (16:33.03).
Ryle’s boys finished 13th, Highlands 14th and Dixie Heights 22nd in the team standings out of 36 teams that participated in the 3A meet.
In the girls 3A meet, Scott’s Maddie Strong was the top NKY finisher in 18:35.74, placing fifth to close out her storied high school career. Strong had to make the jump from 2A to 3A with the new alignment this season, adjusted and still found herself on the podium.
Strong will now take her running talents to the University of Cincinnati, where she recently committed to continue her academic and running career.
“I feel like I’ve had a completely fulfilled career. I’ve really, really enjoyed all my years running for Scott. And I’m really excited that I had the opportunity to be doing this for so long,” Strong said.
Ryle’s Allison Kopser also snagged a podium finish, placing 10th in a time of 19:09.03. Ryle finished fifth in the team standings, one spot out of a podium finish with 235 points.
Assumption won the 3A girls meet with 54 points. Rounding out the top five were Oldham County owning the tiebreaker over DuPont Manual for runner-up as they had 110 points each. North Oldham (219 points) was fourth and Ryle fifth.
Notre Dame, Scott and Campbell County finished seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively. Cooper’s girls were 19th.
Campbell County’s Olivia Holbrook finished 23rd (19:53.61), Simon Kenton’s Allie Atchley was 32nd (20:15.44), Notre Dame’s Alexandra Burg was 37th (20:25.38), Cooper’s Alexandra Rooney 38th (20:29.73) and Ryle’s Stella Aschermann 39th (20:30.62) to round out NKY runners in the top 40.