The Daviess County boys’ and girls’ cross country teams both took first place in the Mustang Stampede Saturday morning.
Lucca Neves had the top time for the Panthers with 17:08.19, finishing fourth overall. Asher Alvey (9th, 17:49.94), Ben Nunley (10th, 17:52.04), Nikolas Hodskins (17th, 18:30.29), and Brody Holbrook (21st, `8:43.7 rounded out the team’s top five times.
On the girls’ side, Sally Tidwell led the way, finishing sixth overall in 21:11.83. Rounding out the team’s top five runners were Julia Zopiyactle (9th, 21:38.32), Rylee Emmick (10th, 21:39.78), Ellie Girten (13th, 21:54.21), and Mallory Raines (14th, 22:05.62).
“Everyone ran well together,” Daviess County head coach Josh Bratcher said. “We have still been battling minor injuries and sickness. However, our team was able to push through. We had some great performances and several people stepped up to help the team be successful. We will continue to train hard and work to get everyone healthy over the next couple of weeks. We are going to take next weekend off.”
In the boys’ race, Apollo finished second, 20 points behind Daviess County. Emmit Brock had the overall top time with 16:18.29, while teammate Noah Gray finished third in 16:50.02.
“I was pretty pleased with today’s performance,” Apollo boys head coach Daniel Southard said. “Emmitt Brock securing the win and Noah Gray placing third helped us big time with points. It’s always interesting watching those two race because they really work well off one another. They train together daily and have embraced the friendly competition. This year we have several new guys who have never run XC and several freshmen as well. I honestly haven’t been this proud of a team in a long time. They are fighters. When you have a group that runs hard for one another you can end up doing incredible things. I definitely think we took a step in the right direction today.”
The Apollo girls placed seventh and were led by Ava Falloway, who finished 21st with a time of 22:37.51.
Owensboro Catholic’s girls finished second, with Peyton Reid (2nd, 20:20.79) and Scarlett Isenbarger (7th, 21:20.82) leading the way.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our girls. They worked hard this week at practice and came ready to compete today,” Owensboro catholic girls’ head coach Jacob Reid said. “It’s great seeing them be successful, and they have so much room for growth still, it’s exciting to watch.”
The OCHS boys finished 12th and were led by Ben Booker (29th, 19:18.93) and Patrick Hauke (56th, 20:11.01).
The Owensboro Red Devils and Lady Devils both finished fourth, with Jackson Quattrochhi (15th, 18:21.71) and Abby Ladwig (22:54.28) leading the charge for their respective teams.
For Hancock County, Carolina Jones (48th, 24:36.87) and Emmitt Meserve (14th, 18:21:69) had the top times for the Lady Hornets and Hornets, respectively.
“We are still running at less than 50% of our team,” Hancock County head coach Wes Meserve said. “It’s really hard to ever get a good read on what we look like because we have not had our full team at any meet yet this season. Emmitt looked good. I still want him to go out harder because he has the endurance to hold on to a fast pace, but we’re still working on it. Carolina Jones has been making steady progress. She still has a lot of potential.”
Trinity was led by Wade Burch (143rd, 22:59.00).
