This story originally appeared in the Dec. 1 edition of the weekly LINK Reader. To get these stories first, subscribe here.
Members of the Beechwood High School girls cross country team tightened their shoes and affixed numbers to their red tiger-striped uniforms as they prepared for action at the Trimble County meet in Bedford. They jogged in place to keep their legs loose. They had a little pre-race pep rally among themselves then grouped together at the starting line. Less than 20 minutes later, the first of them began breezing to the finish as Beechwood won its maiden race of the season.
The winning scenario reprised itself with comforting regularity throughout the schedule for co-head coach Tricia Sturgeon, who helped the Tigers achieve something rarely seen in Northern Kentucky cross country. From the first race that day in mid-August to the last race in late October at the KHSAA Class A state meet at Kentucky Horse Park, the Beechwood girls never stopped winning.
No matter where they ran, no matter the terrain, the weather, the level of competition, nobody got ahead of the Tigers and remained ahead. Nobody fell behind the Tigers and rallied to beat them. Beechwood pushed the pace at the beginning of the race. The Tigers put the pressure on with a pack mentality in the middle of the race. And they had the final say with a finishing kick at the end.
From start to finish at each meet, from the beginning of the season to the end, the Beechwood girls cross country team was perfection personified and that sounds pretty cool to sophomore runner Lily Parke.
“We had a team that backed each other up,” Parke said. “We had a really strong seven again this year. No matter what happened, no matter who finished ahead of who, everybody was supportive.”
No team finished ahead of the Tigers in 2023. They competed in 11 events and won them all, including the conference meet, the regional meet, and the state meet for the second year in a row.
At this year’s state meet, the Tigers put five of their competing seven runners among the top 15 finishers. Parke led with a second-place finish of 19 minutes and 27.35 seconds over the 3.1-mile course. She was followed by sophomore Nora Wilke in third and juniors Isabel Ginter (11th), Charli Gerrein (13th) and Annie Harris (15th). All finished with a clocking of 21 minutes or faster, except for Harris, who missed the mark by less than 8 seconds.
At the time, coach Sturgeon said it was nearly a perfect race. She could have said the same about the season. The only difference: The team finished the season absolutely perfect, with no qualifications. No losses. Nothing worse than first. Every time.
How difficult is that to do in cross country?
“We won state the year before and there were four meets we didn’t win. It’s very difficult. It doesn’t happen a lot,” Sturgeon said. “So many things can happen. Illness. Injuries. Sometimes a girl will miss a day. For two weeks, we had a girl on the elliptical machine twice a week maybe for 45 minutes at a time. There’s race anxiety. Maybe for some reason you’re off a little bit.”
They still won.
“Sometimes a girl will just have a bad day, and the fact they’re teenagers,” Sturgeon said. “We ran in big meets against schools with a lot more kids than us. We competed in events where we were probably the smallest school.”
The Tigers still won.
“It’s pretty amazing, especially when you consider the size of the schools we were going up against,” Parke said. “But we worked hard.”
For a small-school squad, the Tigers had a sizable roster numbering 24. The Tigers also featured senior Catie Hazzard and junior Lana Holt to round out the top seven. The Tigers were so deep, six runners were named all-state: Parke, Wilke, Ginter, Gerrein, Harris and Hazzard. Parke and Hazzard are also state champions in track and field. They were part of the winning 1,600-meter relay team as the Beechwood girls won last season’s Class A state title.
“We have a really good cross country runner, a solid No. 2 and 3, and 4 through 7 were really close in terms of times. Those four were interchangeable all season,” Sturgeon said. “As a group, they were consistent.”
Sturgeon, a former high school runner at Holy Cross, directs the team along with co-head coach Tom Arnold and assistant Celia Fuller.
“We’re lucky we have three coaches with head coaching experience,” Sturgeon said. “That’s a big reason why we’re successful.”
Parke also plays a big part.
“She runs very smart. She’s one of the hardest workers you’ll see,” Sturgeon said. “She’s always a frontrunner. She never has a bad race. We know we always have a top runner at a meet. That takes a lot of pressure off the rest of the team.”