Ryle girls’ break through, finish second in Class 3A cross country state meet

by Evan Dennison October 31, 2026October 31, 2026

Ryle's girls cross country team finished second at the KHSAA Class 3A state meet on Saturday at the Kentucky Horse Park. Photo provided | Charles Bolton

They had been building toward this moment, and Saturday at the Kentucky Horse Park in Georgetown, the Ryle girls cross country team finally broke through.

The Lady Raiders finished runner-up in the Class 3A state meet behind champion Sacred Heart, earning a spot on the podium after placing fifth in two of the previous three seasons.

Ryle put four runners in the top 20, with three finishing in the top 15 to earn individual medals. Sacred Heart won the team title with 55 points, followed by Ryle with 82.

“Very ecstatic. Very happy for our girls,” Ryle coach Shawn Proffitt said. “I came to this program eight years ago, and it just took the girls to believe in themselves. And we talk about it all the time, we have to run for something that’s bigger than ourselves. And that’s what they did today. They ran for something beyond themselves, beyond an individual. I mean, Nina (Tibbs) is running out there with one shoe on.”

Carpenter leads Ryle’s breakthrough

Stella Carpenter led the Raiders with a personal-best time of 18:30.29, finishing seventh overall.

“Lot of summer mileage, workouts, getting up early, just doing a bunch of things with the team,” Carpenter said. “I PR’d, so I’m really happy. The only thing going through my head was, ‘Do it for Aubrey, do it for Aubrey,’ since we’re not going to have her next year.”

Lilah Elliott followed in 14th at 18:51.08, while Sadie Chalfant placed 15th in 18:58.12. All three earned individual medals.

Aubrey Poore, Ryle’s lone senior competing Saturday, finished 20th in 19:11.54. Audrey Buschmann rounded out the Raiders’ scoring five in 30th at 19:27.97.

Northern Kentucky girls among the top 50

Notre Dame’s Maggie Durrett led the Pandas with a 23rd-place finish in 19:22.84. Campbell County’s Lila Dunlevy was 25th in 19:24.

Notre Dame teammates Norah Barker and Abigail Carnes finished 32nd and 33rd in 19:36.33 and 19:38.14, respectively. Abigail Ford placed 42nd in 19:50.29, while Ryle’s Nina Tibbs finished 49th in 20:00.61 despite running part of the race with one shoe.

“She probably got clipped,” Proffitt said. “We ran for the school, we ran to raise the flag, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Proffitt praised Tibbs and the team for their determination in a competitive field featuring several strong programs from Louisville and Lexington.

“They had to find something that was bigger than them, and they found each other today, and that was pretty damn courageous,” he said.

Notre Dame finished sixth as a team with 184 points, just 33 points behind DuPont Manual for the final podium position.

NKY trio finishes fifth, sixth and seventh in boys race

Northern Kentucky made its presence felt in the Class 3A boys race, with Campbell County’s Grant Holbrook, Conner’s Ethan Mann and Covington Catholic’s Braden Franxman finishing fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively.

Holbrook, the regional champion the previous week, recorded a personal-best time of 15:35.87. Mann finished in 15:36.85, while Franxman crossed in 15:37.11. All three earned spots on the individual podium, finishing within just over a second of one another.

“I just wanted to go out with whoever’s in the lead and then try to hang on, basically, and use the same tactics I used throughout the season,” Holbrook said. “We went out harder than I anticipated. The goal was change from at a K go and at a K just hold on to where I was at. So that’s how it went, and I was pretty happy with the performance ahead.”

The close finish reflected both the competitive nature of the trio and their shared goal of challenging the state’s top programs.

“We all want to compete against each other and race and win against each other, but we also want to work together and try to beat these Louisville guys,” Holbrook said.

“Kind of Northern Kentucky versus everyone, I suppose,” Mann added.

Covington Catholic’s Luke McLane also earned an individual podium finish, placing 15th in 15:52.68.

“I think it was big. It’s been kind of a rough season for me, and I think it was a big step for the program and for me,” McLane said.

Covington Catholic earns fourth-place team finish

Franxman and McLane helped lead Covington Catholic to a fourth-place team finish, marking a strong return to Class 3A after the Colonels spent the previous couple of years in Class 2A, where they won state championships.

Trinity won the Class 3A team title with 56 points, followed by Lafayette with 117, St. Xavier with 125 and Covington Catholic with 137.

The Colonels received key contributions throughout their lineup. Joel Barczak finished 32nd in 16:14.73, Asher Edmondson was 35th in 16:22.81 and Salem Glasgow placed 59th in 16:47.12 to round out the team’s top five.

The depth was a defining strength for Covington Catholic. The team’s top finisher could vary from meet to meet, and Franxman, for example, had finished fifth among the Colonels at the regional meet the previous week before placing seventh at state.

“We all run for each other, and when one guy doesn’t have a good race, there’s always a guy behind you that always picks you up,” Franxman said. “Even last week when I was falling off the pace, Luke came running by. He’s like, ‘Let’s go, let’s go,’ and really trying to get me into it. You just can’t ask for a better team member than that.”

After winning state championships in Class 2A, the Colonels showed they could compete with the state’s best after moving back up to Class 3A.