The Lady Panthers historic run continued on Saturday, as they grabbed their 16th straight First Region Class 3A Championship while Apollo and Owensboro also qualified for state.
Daviess County stole the show with its first place finish, led by Lucy Spaw’s second straight individual region title finish (20:05.86). Blakely Greer (3rd, 20:37.48), Bentlei Stallings (6th, 20:50.00) and Sally Tidwell (7th, 20:52.31) all finished in the top-ten as well, while Micah Sagar finished 12th (21:36.92) to round out their top-five.
Head Coach Josh Bratcher and the Lady Panthers set themselves up with the expectation to continue their long-tenured success in the regional meet and with the boys also qualifying for state, it made their impressive performance that much sweeter.
“Overall both teams performed extremely well,” Bratcher said. “There are always areas where we can improve, but we came along nicely on both sides and came out with third for the boys and first for the girls.”
Having steadily progressed as the season has gone along, Bratcher is proud of Daviess County’s cross country teams and is looking forward to seeing what they can do at state.
“Both teams will be advancing to state,” Bratcher said. “The main goal is to work out our race plans, maintain fitness, and continue to trust in our training… “I am extremely proud of the way our team has shown continued growth throughout the season. We look forward to the State meet and continuing our progress this season.”
The E-gals and Lady Devils will be joining Daviess County there, as Apollo finished fourth and Owensboro finished fifth with times of 22:53 and 23:11 respectively.
Ahmira Pickett led the E-gals with a fifth place finish (20:44.24), while Ava Falloway (21st, 22:48.88), Adyson Mattingly (25th, 23:14.21), Kirii Mattingly (30th, 23:37.43) and Chloe Sandefur (35th, 24:02.16) rounded out their top-five.
Kiley Palmer led the Lady Devils with her 11th place finish (21:25.89), while Bella Short (22nd, 22:57.46), Olive Harrison (24th, 23:01.59), Abby Ladwig (32nd, 23:52.38) and Addison Edge (42nd, 24:38.17) rounded out their top-five to qualify for the state meet.
