Cross Country Wildcats Earn Region Runner-Up, Will Compete in State Meet on Saturday

photo courtesy of ECHS Cross Country

Edmonson Voice Sports:
The Edmonson County Wildcat Cross Country team brought home second place honors at the regional cross country meet on Saturday, October 21st, which qualifies them to compete in state meet.

The trio of Tyler Brooks (5th), Ashton Johnson (6th) and Landon Franich (7th)  finished in the top 8 to earn All Region Honors. Other finishers were Zander Garrett (30th) , Owen Ruth (33rd), Jack Browning (38th), Jack Lich (60th).  

“Our boys executed our race plans perfectly," said Head Coach Brad Meredith. "We talked about it this week about what we could accomplish if we race the way we know we can.  Based on personal best times we were picked 5th as a team going into the meet but we know the work we have put in all season and some of the courses we ran on are hard courses so our times were not as fast as some of the other teams."

Meredith said the team does that for a specific purpose.

"All other races are like extra workouts for us and we plan to race our best at region. Like our girls team that won region in 2021, no one but us knew what we were capable of. We kind of were overlooked , until the gun went off," he said. “I told our big 3 that they could be all Region (top 8),  they trusted me and went after it."

He said runner Landon Franich was ranked 19th based on times but finished 7th. 

"For a team score they take the top five runners to make up the score. Then your 6th and 7th runners also score points which helps if they are in front of other teams top 5 runners so it takes everyone to accomplish a good team score.  A lot of times your 4-6 runners are more important than your top three.  So we talked about that as well with those kids, where they needed to be for us to bring home a trophy.  Owen (Ruth), for example, was ranked in the 50s  I told him he could get top 30 and he finished 33rd.  We just had a great day on the boys' side-- all the hard work that they have put in since July paid off today and I am very proud of them. When you have teams like Bethlehem, Owensboro Catholic , Hancock, Green County, Glasgow, the list goes on of really good teams in our region and we competed to finish Runners up as a team. That's a huge accomplishment ”

For the Lady Cats, Mollie Johnson finished 17th and advanced as an individual participant at the state meet. Other finishers for girls were Kylee Williams (40th) , Layla Ellis (48th), Lilly Lindsey (57th), and Kaylee Roeder (62nd).

“I am very proud of our girls, especially our Middle School girls (Lilly and Kaylee) that ran today, we had not planned on them running, they have never even run a 5k this season.  Looking at the entries to the region, I thought we may have a chance to make it out, so I talked to them on Friday and they stepped up to the challenge. They ran great, it just didn’t work out on the team standing like we wanted it to, but it wasn’t for the lack of effort on their part," Meredith said.

The state meet will be held at the Horse Park in Lexington on Saturday, October 28th.