Kentucky’s top two cross country runners live about 2.3 miles apart.
Covington Catholic senior Will Sheets and Beechwood junior Lily Parke are not only the fastest in Northern Kentucky so far. The latest ky.milesplit.com times list Sheets and Park first overall.
Sheets covered the 3.1 miles in 15 minutes, 3.50 seconds at the Springboro (Ohio) Invitational last Saturday.
“He impresses me constantly,” CovCath coach Jeremy Mosher said. “We knew Springboro’s top runner (senior Sam Darmanie) is one of the top, probably, five or 10 athletes in Ohio and on his home course.”
Parke won the St. Xavier Tiger Run Aug. 24, in Louisville with a personal-record 18:18.61. Parke and Sheets don’t see many of each other’s races.
“I think he’s a great runner,” Parke said. “We’re family friends. I think he’s a great runner, and he’s a really nice guy, too.”
Sheets is impressed Parke is undefeated with four first-place finishes in four races this season.
“I know the Beechwood team, it’s a good program, and she seems to be thriving under it, which is awesome,” Sheets said. “Any runner doing well from Northern Kentucky I am a fan of.”
‘Ride the wave’
Sheets overwhelmed Darmanie – his time was a little more than 38 seconds faster than Darmanie’s 15:41.60.
“Will said he wanted to put pressure early, and Will really did that,” Mosher said. “Will beat a really, really good athlete by 30-plus seconds and did it by just being relentless.”
Sheets won the 3A state title two years ago. He’s won three out of four meets this season, with wins at the Moeller “Primetime” Invitational and Diocese of Covington and second at the Cabell Midland Invitational in West Virginia.
What Sheets also knows: dealing with pressure. He suffered an avulsion fracture in his hip last year, where a ligament or soft tissue tears off a portion of the bone, missed the Class 2A, Region 4 meet but finished third in at state and led the Colonels to the team title.
Mosher applied a surfing reference – “Ride the Wave” – to get Sheets to relax a little more.
“A lot of great runners are very good at leaning into adversity, leaning into difficult things, and that’s sustainable only to a certain point,” Mosher said. “I think (Sheets has) shown a lot of maturity this year in not getting too high or too low no matter how the week or the month might be going.”
Sheets admitted his “mentality was not great” last year; he worried about getting hurt before his hip injury.
“We came into the season very hungry, and I think that was great,” Sheets said. “But little stuff, when little stuff did not go right, it had a larger impact than I should have allowed it to. And then when my issue with my hip came up, it completely destroyed me.”
Sheets, who’s headed to the University of Virginia to continue his academic and running career, wondered how much he cared about running.
“By the end of the injury I came to really decide I do love this sport,” he said.
Sheets’ – and CovCath’s – goals don’t end at the state meet. He’s thinking about four national races: the Nike Cross (NXN) Southeast Regional Nov. 23 in Cary, North Carolina, the Foot Locker South regional Nov. 30 in Charlotte, North Carolina, the NXN Championship Dec. 7 in Portland, Oregon, and the Foot Locker nationals Dec. 14 in San Diego.
“I want to be racing, I want to be racing well,” Sheets said. “I want to be making noticeable steps forward in terms of place.”
The last mile
Nearly a month after it happened, Beechwood coach Tricia Sturgeon is amazed Parke ran that fast at St. Xavier. She’s not sure which of her races are most impressive.
“That might be every race in which I watch her run,” Sturgeon said. “She’s an amazing runner, obviously … She’s running with our top boys.”
Parke also won at Ryle (19:08.92), Mason County (18:44.00) and Grant County (19:50.48).
Beechwood won the last two state Class A team titles largely because Parke finished second both times. Sturgeon doesn’t want to tie Parke to the team’s fate.
“I haven’t had that conversation much with Lily; we try not to put the pressure of, like, winning state on her,” Sturgeon said. “But I know, just seeing her face after the state meet last year, I know she was happy for the team but still was a little disappointed because I know winning state has been her goal the last two years.”
Parke’s typical strategy has been leaving everyone else behind and holding on over the final mile – a plan that didn’t work at state last year. This season’s solution: four-mile tempo runs at around 6:20 per mile about 15 seconds slower than race pace.
“I think this year I’ve focused a lot more on my last mile, so I think that’s definitely different,” Parke said. “I’ve been a lot more confident in the end of my race.”
More state rankings
Sheets and Parke are not the only local runners to crack the state Top 25.
Ryle senior Allie Kopser is sixth with an 18:38.01 at Saturday’s Southern Showcase in Huntsville. Alabama, and Campbell County senior Olivia Holbrook is 13th after her 18:51.97 at the Rumble Through the Jungle Sept. 7 in Goshen, Kentucky.
Cooper junior Paul Van Laningham is 13th with a 15:37.80 Aug. 23 at Moeller, and Conner senior Nathan Hopper was 14th thanks to his 15:40.50 at Saturday’s Troy Twilight Invite in Ohio.
