Last night the Panthers and Lady Panthers left no doubt about who is currently the best in the area regarding cross country – winning City County with relative ease.
Lucy Spaw was the sparkplug for the Lady Panthers, finishing first overall with a time of 19:05.76 in the 5000 meters – almost 50 seconds faster than Owensboro Catholic’s Scarlett Isenbarger, who finished second. Chaney Heady (3rd, 19:59.63), Julia Zopiyactle (5th, 20:06.98), Ellie Girten (6th, 20:20.56), and Mallory Raines (7th, 20:21.77) rounded out the Lady Panthers top five times.
“I was super proud of both teams,” Daviess County head coach Josh Bratcher said. “They raced like we talked about, focused on the middle pack, and working together. I am super proud of them and can’t wait for regional and state.”
The Lady Aces finished second overall, with Isenbarger leading the charge. Still in middle school, the eighth grader showed a glimpse of what’s to come over the next few years. Owensboro and Apollo finished third and fourth overall and were led by Abby Ladwig (13th, 21:13.13) and Ava Falloway (16th, 21:21.82) respectively.
For the boys’, Asher Alvey finished first overall, running a 16:04.06, and was followed by Lucca Neves (4th, 17:07.81), Nikolas Hodskins (5th, 17:25.18), Ben Nunley (6th, 17:28.47), and Camryn Edge (7th, 17:30.09).
Noah Gray (2nd, 16:08.04 and Emmitt Brock (3rd, 16:12.53) fueled Apollo to a second-place finish. Rounding out the Eagles top five times were William Guadarrama (11th, 18:02.38 10), Justin Gray (12th 18:02.66), and Keaton Boling 1(13th, 18:02.91).
The Red Devils finished third overall, with Dylan Fulkerson (16th, 18:23.18), Kameryis Cline (17th, 18:31.42), Ace Skimehorn (25th, 18:49.86), Isrell Roberts (27th, 18:54), Owen Moore (32nd, 19:09), and Htee Htoo (47th, 21:26) all finishing with new personal bests.
“I’m extremely proud of how the guys competed tonight,” Owensboro boys head coach Griffen Kelley said. “Throughout our season we’ve had several races with less than favorable conditions due to high temperatures. The guys have stayed the course and tonight’s race with six guys having new personal records was a huge accomplishment. Our job isn’t done quite yet. We set out to punch our ticket back to the state meet in Lexington We can’t lose sight of this and have to stay hungry.”
Owensboro Catholic finished fourth, with Patrick Hauke (23rd, 18:41.34) leading the way, while Ehan Jarboe (48th, 21:57.68) had the top time for Trinity.
