Three Cougars qualify for State

Grayson County qualified three of it cross country runners for next weekend's state championships during this past Saturday's Region 1 Class 3A finals, held at Madisonville-North Hopkins High School.

As expected, seniors Alicia Mattingly and Steven Stewart both qualified as individuals to compete next Saturday at Lexington's Horse Park, but what came as a very pleasant surprise was the qualification of eighth-grader Brady Clemons to take part in his first-ever high school state championship.

And the manner in which he did it came as an even bigger surprise. Clemons, who finished third at last week's Middle School State Championships, actually finished ahead of Stewart. Clemons was 13th overall in a time of 17:29.12, while Stewart finished 18th in a time of 17:44.88.

Mattingly qualified with a top-20 finish, coming in 17th overall with a time of 21:51.58. In talking with Coach Anthony Miller after the race, Mattingly winced when he told her what her time was.

“But we weren't interested in time today,” Miller said, “we were more interested in placement.”

That was because the Lady Cougars had no real shot at qualifying as a team, so it would be strictly an individual effort for Mattingly. The top six runners from non-qualifying teams would be eligible to go to state, and Mattingly was the fourth such runner to qualify.

Seven individual runners qualified on the boys' side, with Clemons being the second top individual qualifier and Stewart being the fourth.

The Cougar men were close to qualifying as a team, finishing fifth overall with a score of 176 points. Four teams qualified for state, led by regional winner Apollo, with 34 points. Daviess County was second (38 points), Greenwood was third (103) and Calloway County was fourth (142).

Daviess County took the girls' team title with 29 points, followed by state-qualifiers Graves County (78), Bowling Green (116) and Calloway County (123).

Sophomore Desiree Hutchinson finished 40th overall in a time of 23:14.31 for the Lady Cougars while Hannah McKenna was 74th in 27:50.61. Junior Stephanie Wood was 77th in 30:36.83, while sophomore Natalie Cubbage, fighting an ankle injury, finished 79th in 33:51.22.

Boys' runners earning points for the Cougars included eighth-grader Zach Berry, 42nd in a personal-best 18:44.08, freshman Jaime Saltsman, 47th in 19:04.25, and junior Andrew Wright, 58th in 19:27.82. Non-scoring performances were turned in by Tyler Deacon, 59th in 19:31.18 and Clay Cannon, 65th in 20.00.15.

“The effort was really there today,” Miller said. “Our goal was to have all the boys run under 20 minutes and we did that.”

The KHSAA is redistricting cross country and track next season and Miller believes that will give his young, up and coming cross country team an excellent opportunity in the next few years to be regional contenders and state qualifiers.

The Cougars will be in a nine-team 3-A Region 2 along with Ohio County, Warren Central, Greenwood, Bowling Green, Barren County, Central Hardin, John Hardin and North Hardin.

With a good contingent of freshman boys and several quality runners coming in from the middle school, both boys and girls, the future looks bright for Grayson County's cross country program.

News-Gazette Sports Reporter

dbrown@gcnewsgazette.com