ELIZABETHTOWN -- As Chris Belcher appeared through the trees near the finish line of the North Hardin Invitational, running all alone in the rain in first place, an interesting conversation was taking place nearby.
According to Cougar Assistant Coach Mary Embry, she was standing near St. Xavier Coach Chuck Medley when someone made the startled comment that this Grayson County runner in the lead, "...looked solid." Medley then told his friend, "That's Chris Belcher, and he is solid!"
Such praise from the coach of a legendary cross-country program, one that is currently ranked number-one in Class 4-A competition, says volumes about the kind of year Belcher is having for the Cougars.
Belcher's third win of the season, in 17:31, helped the Cougars to a third-place finish out of eight teams and 67 runners. Once again, though, the Cougars were not running at full strength. Senior Wes Gift was absent Saturday, taking an ACT test.
On the girls' side of things, the Lady Cougars finished second of six teams as Cassie Newton ran second behind Campbell County's Sara Hater.
Freshman Steven Stewart continued his fine running this season for the Cougars, finishing seventh overall in a time of 18:16. Sophomore Blake Clemons was 20th in 18:49, while Josh Smith was 25th in 19:02. Sophomore Chad Byrd had one of his best races of the year, finishing 46th in 20:21 for the final point-earning spot for the Cougars.
Jesse Mudd finished 56th in 21:03 and Grant Buckles was 58th in 21:39 in non-scoring efforts for Grayson County.
Campbell County, ranked seventh in Class 3-A, won the team title with 46 points. St. X was second with 55 points while Grayson County scored 84 points for third. Host North Hardin was fourth, followed by Meade County, Central Hardin, Nelson County and Larue County.
Campbell County also took the girls' team title with 36 points. The Lady Cougars scored 50 in second, followed by Ballard, Male, North Hardin and Meade County.
Coach Anthony Miller said he wanted the girls to try a new strategy in this race. While he wanted Newton to go out as she normally did, he wanted his other runners to lay back and wait until the final mile before kicking things into a higher gear.
The strategy seemed to work well as his next three runners finished within 23 seconds of one another and the fifth and final scoring runner was a little over a minute behind them.
Molly Beeler, Teryl Davis, Kylee Sipes and Alicia Mattingly were all well bunched near the middle of the pack in the early parts of the race. Once they began their moves, they passed lots of runners.
Beeler was 10th overall in a time of 22:34. Davis was not far behind in 12th in 22:44 and Sipes was right behind in 16th in 22:57. Freshman Alicia Mattingly was 21st in a time of 23:36.
Sophomore Lacey Raley ran her best race of the year, finishing a strong 23rd in 23:53. Victoria Wright was 38th in 26:15.
The middle school teams won trophies as well, with both the boys and girls taking second-place finishes. Andrew Wright led the boys with an individual fourth-place finish in 9:22 over the 2500-meter course, while Kylee Gorby led the girls, finishing sixth in 11:14
Brooks Gorby finished 15th for the boys in a time of 10:50, followed by Kalib Lindsey in 17th (10:58), Tyler Witten in 23rd (12:08), and Carl Ledford in 24th (12:17).
Samantha Parritt finished ninth for the girls in a time of 11:35. She was followed by Anna Ledford in 11th (11:40), Hannah Anderson in 13th (11:44), and Sarah Butcher in 14th (11:54).
Non-scoring finishes were turned in by Melody Embry, 17th in 13:07, Brianna Logsdon, 18th in 13:14, Hope Anderson, 19th in 13:36, and Madison Arndell, 21st in 15:36.
The Cougar harriers will travel to Lexington's Masterson Station Park this next weekend to run in the annual Meet of Champions, which is considered to be the state championship for the middle school teams. This will be the final tuneup before the Region 1 finals, which will be held Saturday, November 6 at Logan County High School.
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