Chris Davis did not attend Monday’s Northern Kentucky Athletic Conference Division II track meet at St. Henry High School.
Bishop Brossart’s boys coach was at a local hospital celebrating the 2 a.m. Monday birth of Joey Davis, his and wife Beth’s third son. The Mustangs, meanwhile, gave the Davis family a double birthday gift – a boys and girls team title in the all-relay meet.
The girls squeaked past Beechwood, 110-101, and the boys bested Beechwood, 106.5-98.5.
“This is a tough meet,” Brossart boys assistant coach Rob Braun said. “You’ve got to run, especially our distance stuff, you’re running some back-to-back. You’ve got to stay in this mentally as well as physically.”
Braun especially praised junior Austin Twehues, who replaced senior Ryan Williamson, who was injured, in the 4×100, 4×200 and sprint medley relays.
“We slotted him right in for Ryan, and he did an incredible job,” Braun said.
Brossart girls coach Dave Schuh said the meet hinged on the pole vault. The Mustangs and Tigers were tied at 101, but freshman Anna Curtsinger won with an 8-feet, 6-inch jump, and freshman Maria Everett was fourth at 7-6.
“They’ve been showing lately that they’re pretty determined,” Schuh said of the entire team. “They’ll run some pretty gutsy, hard races to the end – they won’t give up or back down.”
Monday was also a look at some of Kentucky’s best Class A teams.
In the latest KYtrackXC rankings, defending champion Beechwood’s girls were first, Brossart was fourth, St. Henry was sixth and Newport Central Catholic was ninth. Beechwood’s boys were third, Brossart was fifth, and St. Henry was sixth.
Beechwood coach Dave Meyers said the Tigers are where he thought they’d be.
“(Track and field) is such a strange sport,” Meyers said. “I think a lot of our events are on point where they should be, and there’s a couple that are lagging. A couple nice surprises are, our hurdlers are developing on the boys side; girls sprints, we’re having girls step up because we’ve had a few injuries.”
Meyers’ stomach was maybe a bit upset in the 4×100 relay when Luke Erdman and Nathan Pabst had trouble on the final exchange – Erdman left a shade early – but it worked out because the Tigers edged NewCath by 16-hundredths of a second.
“Obviously it was a little rough, but I know once Luke gets the stick, good things are gonna happen,” Meyers said.
You may remember Bishop Brossart senior Nate Ruth for winning the state Class A cross country race last fall. Monday, he joined Ryan Clines, Griffin Hill and Nick Heck to win the 4×1,600-meter relay in 18 minutes, 42.40 seconds and breaking a 40-year old school record.
“I like the variety of track, getting to do different distances at every meet,” Ruth said. “But I like how each (cross country) course is different; most tracks are the same – 400 meters all around. We’ve been lucky to have all of us the same age come through Bishop Brossart and able to run as fast as we have been.”
St. Henry freshman Hayden Harlan not only set a school record with her 5-foot, 5-inch leap in the high jump – she unofficially tied E’Ternity Starks of DuPont Manual for best in the state.
“I just kind of think run and jump, honestly,” Harlan said.
Harlan prefers soccer; she took up high jump three months ago at least partly because her mom, 1993 Dixie Heights alumna Christina Harlan, jumped in high school.
“She kind of said that I’d be good at it, so that’s the reason I did it,” Harlan said.
St. Henry senior Anna Guard and NewCath’s Reece McCloskey split the throws. Guard defeated McCloskey in the discus by a little more than 20 feet, and McCloskey took the shot put over Guard by 10 inches.
St. Henry’s girls finished third with 86 points, NewCath was fourth with 64, and Highlands rounded out the top five with 61. Highlands’ boys finished third with 90 points, NewCath was fourth with 68, and St. Henry placed fifth with 60.
The NKAC Division I meet begins at 5 p.m. Thursday at Boone County High School in Florence.
After the meet, Brossart’s boys gathered around Braun, who had Davis on speaker.
“He was just incredibly proud of how we did,” Braun said.
For complete Monday results, visit ky.milesplit.com (bit.ly/3UFo126).
