It turned out not to be a matter of if, but a matter of who ran for the Covington Catholic cross country team in the state cross country meet at the Kentucky Horse Park.
The Colonels saw a number of different runners step forward throughout the season, battling injuries on their way to their first state championship since 1994. The Colonels dominated the Class 2A race with 62 points, outscoring runner-up Mason County’s 151 by 89 points. CovCath dropped down from Class 3A this year running in 2A for the first time since 2014.
CovCath won its third Class 2A championship overall. But the last one came 29 years ago in 1994 and the first one took place in 1982.
“We had a clear race plan and all the guys executed really well,” said Jeremy Mosher, CovCath head coach. “They knew what position they needed to be in by midrace. That’s what you look for is guys finishing the job.”
Junior Will Sheets ran for the Colonels for the first time in eight weeks and took third in 16:10.97 behind Thomas Nelson junior Riku Sugie (15:40.02) and John Hardin senior Brendan Nagle (15:52.57). Sheets won the 3A individual crown in 15:28.20 last year.
“My goal coming back was just to help the Colonels,” Sheets said. “It probably was smarter to take more time off. But when you see these guys working their tails off each and every day and you’re not there, it hurts so the desire to get back was really strong. I’m so thankful that we could do it.”
Sheets said he saw six different doctors trying to figure out the issue with his right hip. But Sheets said he decided to listen to the advice of his Physical Therapist.
“All the other doctors said six weeks,” Sheets said. “My PT said we treat the pain, not the scan. He just said, ‘If you’re ready to run and you’re not feeling pain, we can manage a comeback’ so that’s what I did.”
Joe Mayer finished right behind Sheets in fourth in 16:22.40. Michael Zechella also made the podium finishing 11th in 16:58.30 before Nolan Bonta took 17th in 17:26.64. Bonta credited the Colonel Crazies and other supporters for their role in the win.
“Besides just the team that I’m running with every single day, the people that support us. We’re on the announcements at school. They’re telling everyone to show up,” Bonta said. “We have people playing trumpets. We have guys with body paint. We have flags out there. Every single time I round a corner and I hear people chanting, ‘Go Colonels,’ that means everything to me and that just makes me keep going.”
Luke Meagher took 30th overall in 17:51.73 rounding out the CovCath scoring. Meagher had not run the whole month of September, also with a hip issue. Meagher ran just his first race of the year in the Class 2A, Region 4 meet last week.
“The region race at Bourbon County was much more difficult than this,” Meagher said. “That place is a true cross country course. It is one of the most difficult ones out there. This one was pretty easy for me. That hill in the back really got me. But we ran the course before and we were talking through it the whole time, locked in, just looking at the course realizing where you need to be when stuff happens and be prepared for what other teams were going to throw at us.”
Mosher credited Meagher for passing about 10 runners in the final mile to lower the CovCath score.
“I’m just amazed by the focus and the fortitude that Luke Meagher has had,” Mosher said. “The work he did stretches back years. He’s drawing on the training he’s done as a freshman and sophomore. But the real test is his love for the team. When it came down it, he had the self-belief. He still had that will to win.”
CovCath wound up putting all seven runners in the top 50 out of 260 runners total. Luke McLane took 32nd in 17:52.36 and Jackson Germann finished 49th in 18:14.35.
The Colonels saw 13 runners take the stage for the awards ceremony. Luke O’Hara ran in the region meet last week rounding out the seven runners. Adam Donelan and Drew Kurtzner were also ready to run for the Colonels if needed.
“It’s been a program-wide buy in where we challenge them to put in a lot of miles, to do some pretty challenging workouts. We challenged them how they live with the decisions they make with how they sleep and eat,” Mosher said. “That’s the kind of thing that’s never easy. But when you have a whole bunch of teammates doing it together and buying into that, it’s easier for each individual to make that sacrifice.”
The girls race had just two runners from the area. Lloyd Memorial eighth graders Savannah Gerding and Jersey Marquis took 117th and 130th in 25:01.39 and 25:24.37, respectively.