As she drove to a junior varsity track meet at Boone County Wednesday afternoon, Toni McKee was maybe more joyful than she was the day before.
Such glee was possible because McKee and Campbell County won their first Northern Kentucky Athletic Conference Division I title since 2012 on Tuesday at Notre Dame, a 101.5-89 win over the host Pandas.
“I think it’s had a little time to sink in,” McKee said. “I might be a little more excited even than I was yesterday, just thinking through how great the night was and how well our kids ran.”
“To be honest, it was a full team effort. I told the girls at the beginning of the beat that I knew that we had a chance to win if everybody got on the board together.”
A look at the sprint relay results showed a major reason the Camels finished first. They won the 4×200 in 1:46.63 and 4×100 shuttle hurdles in 1:12.39 and placed second in the 800 sprint medley in 1:52.30.
It was not the only reason – senior Emma Naylor’s 10-6 was best in the pole vault.
Campbell County was strong in distance relays, too: a win in the 4×400 (4:09.78), second in the distance medley (13:07.81) and 4×800 (10:01.49), and sixth in 4×1,600 (26:22.38).
“A relay meet is really special because it, it really shows a team that’s working well together, and our conference is always very difficult with big teams like Ryle and Notre Dame and Dixie (Heights),” McKee said. “You know, it’s always a dogfight, really, to compete with those teams.”
A rivalry in the throws between Dixie Heights junior Ari Carter and Cooper’s Ava Dunn continued. Carter won the discus (122-2) over Dunn (100-11), and Dunn took the shot put.
Simon Kenton senior Alexis Howard won the long jump in 18-11 ½ and triple jump in 39-5 ¼. Cooper senior Chris Nowak won the high jump with a 4-10.
Cooper was third with 86 points, Ryle was fourth with 75, followed by Dixie Heights with 51, Conner with 47, Highlands with 35.5 and Simon Kenton with 26.
CovCath tops Cooper
Covington Catholic’s 116.5-98 win was the Colonels’ third in four years. (CovCath won in 2023 and 2024.)
“It’s never easy to win a big meet like that,” CovCath coach Jeremy Mosher said. “You’re always one baton drop or a jumper, thrower not quite being in rhythm to drop a lot of points.”
Mosher quickly identified a reason the Colonels won: sophomores Henry Wahoff and Landon Dailey in the triple jump gave their team 10 points. Wahoff finished second with a 39-11 ½ , and Dailey was fourth at 38-3 ¼.
“Our triple jumpers were outstanding,” Mosher said. They won that event, not with any one superstar … Both came up big with big, big PRs (personal records).”
CovCath junior Will Danneman won the long jump with a 20-2.75 and was part of the Colonels’ winning 800 sprint medley quartet. Senior Quentin Jones won the shot put 46-3.75.
The Colonels’ runners also won the 4×1,600 (18:36.79) and 800 sprint medley (1:33.38) and took second in the 4×100 (43.66) and 4×800 (8:06.56).
Mosher thought junior Nate Becker, senior Jack Fender, sophomore Dominic Terzo and senior Jacob Keller winning the 4×100 shuttle hurdles in 1:02.79 was maybe the most memorable – and not only because it set an NKAC record.
“That was actually something that those guys had been targeting,” Mosher said. ”The fastest time in the (ky.milesplit.com) database, I’m sure there are meets that maybe get missed, but the fastest time in the milesplit database for that event was our conference meet record.”
Cooper won the distance medley (10:39.03), junior Julienn Knuckles won the high jump with a 6-2, and junior Corey Freihofer was first in the pole vault (14-0).
Ryle took the 4×100 (43.15), 4×800 (8:06.25) and 4×200 (1:29.11).
Defending Class 3A, Region 5 champion Dixie Heights won the 4×400 in 3:23.89.
Ryle was third with 72.5 points, followed by Campbell County with 59.5, Dixie Heights with 56, Conner with 55, Highlands with 42 and Simon Kenton with 27.5.
Visit ky.milesplit.com (bit.ly/4t2uphK) for complete results.
PHOTOS: Slideshow provided by Charles Bolton
