Highlands cross country teams have big goals

Contributed Photo. Highlands junior Ethan Shuley tries to pull away from the pack in a race last year. Shuley leads a strong group of juniors as both teams try to bring home the AA state championships in the same year for the first time since 1979. The Ladybirds are the two-time defending AA champions.

By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM

Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter

It has not been done since 1979.

The Highlands cross country teams would love to both bring home the state championships in the same year for the first time since then. The Ladybirds are the two-time AA champions and are heavily favored to three-peat. They’ve won eight in school history and are tied with Pulaski County in the state for the most state championships behind St. Henry’s 16 titles.

On the other side, the Bluebirds have inches closer to their first title since 1985. They have three titles in school history and finished third last year behind North Oldham and Covington Catholic. North Oldham will again be their main competition for the crown.

“We have more than 100 kids at practice in grades K-12. It’s crazy,” said Brian Alessandro, Highlands Head Coach. “People are looking at us more. A lot of that has to do with the success of our running program. Our goal is to keep winning and get more exposure.”

Neither team graduated a lot from last year. Frances Tracy and Paige Dauer graduated for the Ladybirds and John Michael Griffith graduated for the Bluebirds. Griffith is running at Northern Kentucky University.

Sophomore Chloe Gastright leads the Ladybirds. Her personal record is 19 minutes, 10 seconds. Sophomore Lauren Ossege and freshman Brianna Collins are the other four returning varsity runners. The other spots are up for grabs.

“We have more people dedicated to running in the summer,” Gastright said. “The younger runners can help us out more.”

The Bluebirds also return five runners from last year’s varsity squad led by junior Ethan Shuley. He ran a personal best of 15:55 last year and Alessandro expects to see him run around 15:10. Juniors Geoffrey Mearns, Matt Gray, Will Backscheider and Jackson Paul also return. The other spots are also up for grabs.

Shuley said the big key to bringing home the gold is relaxing at the state meet. That is where experience could come in.

“If we treat it like any other race, we can do well,” Shuley said. “You can over think it. We were overwhelmed by the competition and didn’t run well.”

Highlands will travel out of state for a meet this year. One race is in Columbus (Ohio).

“We want to see more competition,” Alessandro said. “We try to pick courses that are flat. Our training is geared toward the end of the season.”

Highlands opens the season Aug. 30. The teams partake in the Ryle Invitational.