Local high school cross country teams kicked off their season Tuesday with the Kentucky/Indiana Border Clash at Yellow Creek Park. The Daviess County boys’ and girls’ teams each claimed first place in the meet.
Sophomore Lucy Spaw finished first for the Lady Panthers and second overall with a time of 19:53.2. She was pleased with her performance.
“Our team did really well— especially since we didn’t have some of the girls on our team due to injuries,” Spaw said.
As far as her season goal, Spaw says she hopes to break 19 minutes and make it to the stadium at state.
DC Girls’ Coach Josh Bratcher is also excited about his team’s finish, calling their performance solid across the board.
“They all ran and raced well together. They went above and beyond what we were expecting of them. Our team was missing five girls tonight and our number two runner was out. They all worked hard and worked together, coming away with the win,” Bratcher said.
Finishing out front for Daviess County in the boys’ race was sophomore Asher Alvey, who placed third overall with a time of 16:22.3. Apollo’s Emmit Brock placed 9th with a time of 16:51.2.
“I feel good. I did better than I thought I could do. Leading up to this race, I’ve done a lot of running by myself and a lot of training,” Alvey said. My goal is to run sub-16 (minutes) by the end of the year,” Alvey said.
According to DC Boys’ Coach Hunter Kurz, his runners exceeded his expectations.
“We wanted to focus on packing together and working with our teammates. I had them call upon each other and run together and they did an awesome job at that. I think they blew it out of the water today,” Kurz said.
Kurz has set goals for his team, utilizing his own running experiences to effectively connect with his athletes.
“I told them at the beginning that if we could average 17:05 by the end of the season, I think we could be a top-five team in the state. Today they averaged 17:08. I think with the progression we should see during the season, we have the contention to be a pretty high team in the state,” Kurz said.
Full official results will be posted here when they become available.
