Austin Stallings capped off a strong senior season with a fourth-place finish in the Boys’ 1A State Cross Country Championship, leading Owensboro Catholic to third as a team. In the girls’ race, junior Alex Scheithe came in sixth for the Lady Aces.
Stallings (16:16.39) was in second place for much of Saturday’s race at Kentucky Horse Park, but he fell a couple spots in the final stretch.
“I didn’t have the kick I wanted at all in the last 800 (meters),” he said. “I’m a little disappointed with that.”
It’s still an improvement on his previous state meets, so he took some solace in the better outing.
“The last two years, I’ve been horribly disappointed here,” he said. “Anything better than fifth was big for me.”
The Aces finished with a team score of 136, behind winner Holy Cross and runner-up Lexington Catholic. Though they were second a season ago, head coach Scott Lowe said this was a better result in terms of expectations.
“They ran awesome today,” he said. “Some of the guys are not happy where they finished, but I am. They stepped up today. They did what they were supposed to do.”
After heavy rain earlier in the week, the course was soggy and had a few big puddles that runners had to cross multiple times.
“I think they were cautious at the first mile because they didn’t know how the course was going to lay out,” Lowe said. “Once they got their feet underneath them, they were fine.”
Before the race, Lowe said he told his runners to focus more on beating the competition than worrying about their times.
“I told them at the very beginning today it’s a battle of attrition in being in the right position instead of times,” he said. “Don’t worry about times. Find somebody, run with them, and get in position so we can score well.”
John Cason (17:09.40), who took 11th place, was the second finisher for the Aces. Other scoring runners were Hank Dotsey (17:48.58, 27th), Sean Whitehouse (17:57.61, 33rd) and Jude Neal (18:37.27, 61st). Cason and Neal led a group of juniors that Lowe said performed well.
“I saw some magic today in my juniors, especially with Jude Neal,” he said. “I knew John Cason was going to be up there, but Jude really stepped it up today. He ran phenomenal. He’s finally coming into his own.”
The girls’ team finished 11th (307 points) behind the strong performance from Scheithe. She was happy to finish near the front, but thought her time could have been a little better.
“I felt really competitive,” she said. “I thought I could have pushed a little harder toward the end, but overall I’m really happy with my race and the training that I’ve had this season.”
Scheithe has been performing well in recent races and finished second in the region meet a week ago.
“I feel I was peaking at the right time,” she said. “Coach (Jim) Ivey has a really great training method and schedule. Even though sometimes you may not agree with him, he is right.”
Other scoring runners for the team were Bethany Mayfield (22:37.60, 60th), Kate Weafer (22:51.13, 65th), Katie Hayden (23:22.78, 82nd) and Anna Lee Meyer (23:38.78, 94th).
Scheithe said she was proud of her team and that they’ve had a great year.
“It’s been amazing,” she said. “We had some first timers, including myself. Our team has worked really well together, and we love each other. “
