You could call the Northern Kentucky Athletic Conference Division II track meet a Bishop Brossart Bash.
The Mustangs swept both team titles in Monday’s all-relay event at St. Henry. The girls defeated St. Henry, 119.5-87, and the boys took down Lloyd Memorial, 110-85.5.
For a while, Brossart boys coach Chris Davis wondered how he was going to replace several injured runners. He may have found the solution – freshman Jaiden Whittrock joined Alex Grosser, Griffin Hill and Adam Tarvin to win the 4×1,600.
About an hour later, Whittrock, Tarvin, Anthony Schuck and Max Leuderalbert won the 4×800.
“He’s kind of our unsung hero,” Davis said of Whittrock.
Whittrock smiled when told what Davis said.
“That made me feel good,” Whittrock said. “I’m proud to be a part of the team and be able to fill in a spot when we had an injury.
Whittrock even created a new word: “sprintance,” a mashup of sprints and distance.
“I can do anything,” Whittrock said. “I really like the 800 – it’s definitely the most painful, but I feel like I can do my best there.”
Hill, who’s headed for Thomas More University, is Brossart’s lone returnee from last year’s state record-setting 4×800 team. What he thinks about, however, is placing 11th in the 3,200.
“Yeah, I think about that a couple times every week,” Hill said.
Beechwood’s boys (the defending Class A state champion) finished third with 75 points, NewCath was fourth with 64, and Highlands was fifth with 59.
Veterans affairs
Brossart girls coach Dave Schuh said he needed all eight seniors and eight juniors – especially junior Peyton Trauth and senior Zoey Woosley.
“We finished first and second in the long jump (Trauth and Woosley),” Schuh said. “(Woosley) does a lot of things; she’s our hurdler that set a new school record earlier this weekend in 100-meter hurdles.”
Brossart was strong in other field events, too. Anna Curtsinger and Maria Everett were 1-2 in the pole vault, and Ava Walters won the discus and shot put.
Highlands’ Isla Meyn, Georgia Zengel, Mirabelle Go and Ava Perry won the 4×1,600 by 38 seconds over Brossart.
Beechwood, the two-time defending girls Class A state champion, finished sixth Monday. Coach Marsha Parke wasn’t worried.
“I’m just trying to tell them to have some fun with it, not get too stressed,” Parke said.
Newport Central Catholic’s girls were third with 81 points, Scott was fourth with 60.5, and Highlands was fifth with 58.5.The NKAC Division I meet is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Covington Catholic.
Lloyd sets school record
A year ago, the Juggernaut boys were finishing fifth or lower in the all-relay NKAC meet.
Different story Monday – Cameron Towbridge, Alijah Griffin, Shawn Sims and Josiah Lockridge needed just 43.88 seconds to set a school record in the 4×100, breaking a 19-year school record and edging Beechwood’s Nathan Pabst, Brody Aylor, James Cusick and Luke Erdman by three hundredths of a second.
“It’s a big thing,” Lockridge said of the record. “We’ve been working on it all year long.”
Lloyd head coach Dara Webb was the connective tissue – he was on the 2006 squad.
“It’s very bittersweet,” Webb said. “So it was a goal of ours to beat this record.
“To say I wanted to hang onto it would be the best thing I could say, but the boys beating that … is also a huge accomplishment for myself just to see that record finally go down.”
By the time Lockridge received the baton from Sims, Lloyd was about 20 meters behind Erdman. Not to worry – Lockridge finished with a school-record 10.64 split, which bested his 10.84 at the Stan Steidel Invitational.
The Juggernauts were just starting.
Towbridge, Griffin, AJ Curry and Lockridge won the 4×200 by just under a second over Pabst, Aylor, Cusick and Erdman. Griffin, Lockridge, Towbridge and Curry won the 800 sprint medley.
For complete results, visit ky.milesplit.com. (bit.ly/4iBaBMY)
PHOTOS: NKAC Division II meet at St. Henry (photos provided by Charles Bolton)
