Apollo boys earned a spot on the podium by placing fourth as a team with senior Thomas Ashby’s fourth-place finish leading the way, while Daviess County finished 14th as a team in the 3A Cross Country Championship on Saturday.
Ashby put up a time of 15:47.70 in the competition, helping lead the Eagles to their average time of 16:56.28. Head Coach Charlie Shoulta was proud of his senior leader, saying that if it weren’t for him they would not have finished as strong as a team.
“Thomas was happy with fourth,” Shoulta said. “I don’t know if he was happy with his place, but he was happy with how he battled, how he ran and I was too. Honestly, if you run that race again ten times and I think Thomas can win that race three out of 10 times… At the end of the day Thomas was happy with how he ran and obviously without Thomas we’re not a field-placing state team. So I’m really proud of him.”
Emitt Brock was their number two on the day with a 41st place finish (16:52.10), while Blake Mullins finished 45th (16:56.30) and Noah Gray finished 50th (16:58.50). The trio of Eagles ran tight together throughout the race, something that Shoulta said really helped propel them to success on Saturday.
“Our biggest strength outside of having a Thomas Ashby on our team is our two, three and four,” Shoulta said. “Those three man, any one of those guys can be on our number two on a given day… What made us so tough is those three’s ability to run together. It’s so easy in races that big to get down on yourself, but they packed up and they were within a few feet of each other through the two mile mark.”
Shoulta said Josh Thomas also stepped up big when the Eagles really needed it, because if he hadn’t battled through some discomforts he was facing that they wouldn’t have ended up on the podium in fourth place. He placed 143rd in the race with a time of 18:06.80 to round out Apollo’s top-five.
“We were thrilled to finish in the top four,” Shoulta said. “Last year we finished ninth as a team. We’ve taken huge steps in a year and all of that is a testament to how hard the boys work. They all made a kind of a pact early in the summer that they were going to put it all on the line and set the goal as a state championship… We knew that was a longshot. There are some really great teams in the state, but they worked towards that and that’s what helped them get on the podium today.”
The performance from the boys team was the second-highest placement in program history, something that Shoulta knows is in large part due to his seniors in Ashby and Mullins. The top-five finish for Ashby is the bow on an impressive high school career, having left a mark on the Eagles program with his ability to lead by example.
“I’ve had great runners before, but the thing that makes Thomas special is how much he focuses on the small things,” Shoulta said. “They’re not really small things, but things you don’t think about or are really hard to get high schoolers to buy into. Like nutrition, sleep and just doing the right things on a consistent basis… His lasting impact is really just how important it is to do the right things and the 22 hours a day outside of practice.”
While Mullins may not have the same individual accolades as Ashby, Shoulta said that the same goes for him. Shoulta said his ability to improve his run time by two minutes in the span of a year is something that he hopes all of his runners have taken note of.
“Blake’s impact honestly is just as big,” Shoulta said. “Because so often I’ll tell these guys ‘hey look at this kid on the other side of the state or this kid across the country, he improved three minutes in one year with just hard work.’ That can be somewhat motivating, but when you see that with your own eyes and someone that you trained with day in and day out it makes it that much more real. I think that’s going to be huge that we had somebody like that that we can point to and say this wasn’t a fluke… Everything Blake achieved was literally because he started making smart decisions and didn’t take days off.”
While replacing Ashby and Mullins will be a big task for Apollo, Shoulta hopes that the work ethic the two displayed over the four years will carry on with their teammates and help them continue the success that they helped bring the program.
“We return five of our seven,” Shoulta said. “We’ve got some pieces to continue on. There’s so often you’ll see these schools have a flash in the pants season and that’s great, but we really wanna build a program and not a season team. We’ll need some guys to step up and put in the work.”
On the other hand the Panthers finished 14th as a team, with Nolan Kurz’s time of 16:45.10 leading the way. Head Coach Josh Bratcher said that they didn’t switch up their gameplan for the state meet and that in the end it helped them have a solid race.
“Honestly, not much different from regionals,” Bratcher said. “We just wanted to stay packed and stay together as best as possible to get a good position and just hold it… Nolan Kurz [stood out to me]. He finished 35th… Honestly I think he just went out and went after it. He wasn’t as concerned with pacing and just ran the race.”
Bryson McGary was the Panthers number two on the day with a 70th place finish (17:19.00), while Brayden Kaelin finished 101st (17:44.50), Asher Alvey finished 102nd (17:45.40) and Zach McCaslin finished 140th (18:05.50) to round out their top-five. Having been projected 18th going into the race, Bratcher was pleased with how they closed out the season and is excited for what the future has in store.
“I’d say they both ran extremely strong,” Bratcher said. “When you look at rankings beforehand going into this race, we actually performed better than what we were predicted to as far as points and on the boys side place-wise… But ultimately, both teams ran extremely well. I think just everyone had an awesome race today.”
