Mercer’s Blevins placed 3rd at XC state meet; Burgin boys finish 13th overall
Arpan Dixit
Herald Staff
sports@harrodsburgherald.com
Burgin’s Trevar Lay (middle), keeps pace with the front of the pack during the cross country state championship meet on Saturday, Nov. 4, at Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. Lay has had an impressive season and his senior season ends with a 36th place finish out of 264 runners. (Photo by Arpan Dixit)
MERCER
Both the Mercer County Titans and Burgin Bulldogs had a strong showing at the cross country state championships on Saturday, Nov. 4, at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington.
For Mercer, only the girls qualified, but they did not disappoint. Sophomore Haley Blevins finished third overall in the girls 5K for Class AA, with a time of 19:17.78. She finished behind Maggie Schroder of Highlands and Victoria Dotson of Rockcastle County, who was the state champion.
Blevins talked about the season her team has had as well as her individual accomplishments.
“We’ve accomplished a lot this season, as a team and as individuals. We’ve all gotten better and I’m very proud of this team,” she said. “Individually, I was striving to be better than last year and improve, so I pushed extra hard this season and thanks to God, I was able to.”
Blevins said it was a great accomplishment to place third in state.
“Yeah I didn’t win, but now I know where I am, and where I need to train and focus on getting better,” she said. “Although I didn’t run my best time at state, I was still proud of myself, and I can only improve from here.”
Mercer Head Coach David Teets talked about Haley’s finish as well as looking forward to next season.
“She ran an outstanding race. She placed third, which was better than the statistics predicted,” he said. “My girls’ team did really well all year long and I look forward to future performances next season.”
BURGIN
The Burgin Bulldogs have been impressive all season long, with their seven runners consistently at the top of scoreboards in most meets. Senior Trevar Lay finished 36th overall with a time of 17:58.14. Junior Drew Hatfield finished 47th in 18:10.48 and his classmate, Daylan Hodges, placed 62nd in 18:26.74. Senior Hunter Preston finished 114th in 19:15.86.
The Lady Bulldogs also had seven runners compete, with five of their first seven runners being eighth graders.
Avery Harmon placed 145th in 24:36.52, Kenzie Humber was 159th in 25:02.81, Rebecca Biggs was 160th in 25:03.95, Keira Propes was 173rd in 25:56.12 and Kaylee McCray was 176th in 26:13.52.
To learn more, check out this week’s issue of The Harrodsburg Herald.
