Highlands XC teams aim for the top

By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM

Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter

They claimed one AA title last fall and would love to capture both this year.

The Highlands Bluebirds girls cross country team won the AA championship and the boys finished sixth. Both won the Region 4 meet last fall and the majority of those teams return this fall.

The team has some depth with 90 runners out this year, including 70 in grades 6-12. That comes with familiarity with second-year head coach Brian Alessandro. Alessandro graduated from Highlands in 1998.

“When I took over the program, the numbers were low,” Alessandro said. “This offers the opportunity for kids to do well and also stay fit. It’s one of those things we want to keep building and win state championships along the way.”

The girls enter the season as overwhelming favorites to repeat as AA champions led by record-breaking sophomore Molly Mearns. Mearns owns the school with a time of 18 minutes, 36 seconds races that are typically 3.1 miles. Mearns also owns every school distance record except the 800 meter run.

Alessandro said the goal for the girls is to see five girls run under 19 minutes. Sophomore Lauren Ossege (18:42), freshmen Sydney Ossege (19:05) return along with freshman Chloe Gastright, eighth-grader Karsen Hunter and seniors Paige Dauer and Alyssa Farley. Alessandro also said senior Frances Tracy decided to run this year instead of playing volleyball and could help out.

“We’re trying not to expect anything special,” Mearns said. “We’re going to work just as hard every day to get better and improve our times.”

The Highlands boys graduated just one runner from last year in Cam Kruse. Senior John Michael Griffith leads the way after winning the state championship in the two-mile race last year. His personal best is 16:32.

“The state meet was warm last year,” Alessandro said. “But I think we focused on doing well in the regional meet and I think that compromised the boys performance at the state. But this year is going to be different. They’ve bought into my program a lot. That should help them.”

Freshman Ethan Shuley (16:50) and sophomore Matt Gray (17:10) return and are not playing soccer this year. Shuley finished fourth in the two-mile race in the state track meet in the spring.

Alessandro also expects some contributions from sophomore Geoff Mearns, junior James Smith and sophomore Will Backschieder. Mearns was injured last year and Backschieder is out for the first year instead of playing football.

“We’re a lot better this year,” Griffith said. “We peaked the week before regionals and our week ended at regionals. We still ran well at state. We can focus on going after the better teams in the state this year. It’s a matter of doing training right. We don’t run as hard or as many miles so our bodies recover and are at their best for those races.”

The first race is Aug. 31 in the Ryle Invitational.