Highlands, NewCath prepare for state cross country meet

By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM

Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter

Runners from all over Kentucky hit Horse Park near Lexington for the state cross country championships.

The Highlands Bluebirds and Ladybirds teams have good shots at state titles. They come into the meet with Class AA, Region 4 championships. It would mark the seventh for the Ladybirds and first since winning three in a row from 2002 to 2004. A state title would be the third for the Bluebirds and the first since 1985.

Both teams have tapered off the workouts this week. That included two days off. Head Coach Brian Alessandro, a 1998 Highlands graduate, has employed that strategy personally before running marathons (26.2 miles) in places like Louisville and Houston.

“It cuts down their mileage so they’re rested for Saturday,” Alessandro said. “Rest is something I don’t think people give enough of their athletes.”

Alessandro and the runners did not seem concerned about the course at Horse Park. The course has some rolling hills. Highlands ran at Horse Park a few weeks ago winning the Lexington Catholic Meet.

“It’s a forgiving course,” said Cam Kruse, Highlands senior. “It’s less harsh than some. You couldn’t ask for a better place for a cross country meet.”

Alessandro said North Oldham and South Oldham will be the main challengers in both races. The South Oldham Lady Dragons have won the last four AA titles. They won Region 3. They’re top three runners in the region meet were sophomore Erin Wilson (fourth in 19:37.92), senior Grace Whitworth (fifth in 19:39.25) and junior Keightley Dudgeon (sixth in 19:56.31).

“Really at the state meet, it’s all about placing,” Alessandro said. “It doesn’t matter what your time is as long as you place well.”

The times of the three top Ladybirds came out lower than South Oldham’s top three. Freshman Molly Mearns won the Class AA, Region 4 meet in 18:36.9 with sisters Lauren Ossege, a freshman, and Sydney Ossege, an eighth-grader, comin in second and third at 18:40.4 and 19:10.7 respectively.

“It’s nice knowing Molly and I both went under 19 minutes,” Lauren Ossege said. “We were just pushing each other. So we hope to still do that at state. It raised my confidence because I know I can stay with her.”

Highlands placed all seven runners in the top 10 of the regional meet. None are seniors. The two juniors are Alyssa Farley and Paige Dauer. Farley also played on the golf, soccer and dance teams.

“I don’t have a lot of extra time,” Farley said. “If I don’t make the practices, I have to make up the work because a lot of the time, practices would overlap. I just had to do everything I could.”

The North Oldham Mustangs ended up winning the Class AA, Region 3 Meet. Junior Luke Tarvestad finished second to lead the Mustangs in 16:58.85.

Freshman Ethan Shuley finished second in the Region 4 meet for Highlands. The Bluebirds edged out Lexington Catholic by eight points to win the meet.

“CovCath is obviously our biggest rival,” said John Michael Griffith, Highlands junior. “We knew we had a really big shot at winning going in because we knew we had three potential top five placers. (The Colonels) have a good squad too. We took the most of our chance and ran really well.”

The Bluebirds hope to at least finish in the top three. All must run below 17:20 to win it.

The Ladybirds start at 11:30 a.m. and the Bluebirds run at 12:15 p.m.

Thoroughbreds, Drohan qualify in Class A:

Newport Central Catholic competes in the same Region 4 with St. Henry. The Crusaders own 14 state championships including the previous 10 years. The Lady Crusaders own the most in state history, also with 14. They’ve won the Class A title every year since 2003 except in 2010 when Fairview won it.

The Thoroughbreds hope to finish in the top four. They barely qualified for state as a team finishing fifth in the Region 4 Meet.

“They had a bad race Saturday and they’re looking to redeem themselves,” said Dave Ueding, NewCath head coach. “Our third and fourth men had bad days. One of them was sick and he ran like he was sick. Our fifth man saved us because he came in as third man and had one of his best races.”

NewCath scored 114 points to finish fifth in that race. St. Henry won it with 53 points and Walton-Verona came in second with 57.

Senior Patrick Allen led the Thoroughbreds finishing seventh in 16:43. Fellow senior Conner Bartels took the second spot for NewCath in 17:36.1 to grab 17th overall.

“Staying positive is the main point,” Allen said. “We’re trying to get our ducks in a row. We were the number one seed coming into the season. We hope to show we deserved that number one seed. We’re coming after everybody.”

The Lady Breds did not qualify for state as a team. But junior Caitlyn Drohan qualified individually finishing 18th in 21:12.6 in the Region 4 Meet.

“The pressure was just getting there,” said Dave Meyers, Lady Breds head coach. “Now we hope she has her best race.”

Drohan hopes to finish among the top 30 runners in the state. St. Henry sophomore Sam Hentz won the Region 4 meet in 19:29.6.

“I’m just working on my first mile,” Drohan said. “I usually run it somewhat slow. I start out too fast then slowed it down quite a bit so I ran it too slow. I’d like to run a consistent pace the whole race.”

Drohan will run at 9:30 a.m. and the Thoroughbreds run at 10:15 a.m.