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Johnson qualifies for New Balance Nationals; Blevins’ relay team with top-10 time in nation

Arpan Dixit
Herald Staff
sports@harrodsburgherald.com

Mercer’s Haley Blevins (far left) is pictured L to R with Rockcastle County’s Tori Dotson, George Rogers Clark’s Makenzie Cooper and Morgan County’s Kailee Perry. Their time in the distance medley relay ranks them top-10 in the nation. (Photo submitted by Lori Dotson)

Mercer County track and field have had a lot of success in the last three seasons.

The men’s team have won back-to-back state championships in Class 2A and the women’s team finished last year’s state championships with their highest finish in school history in outdoor track.

Their success is equally impressive in indoor track. Mercer senior Aaron Johnson and sophomore Haley Blevins competed at an indoor track meet this past weekend at Vanderbilt University. It was a record-breaking achievement for one and the other qualified for a prestigious indoor track meet held in New York City.

Johnson, who runs for Team Kentucky, won the 60-meter hurdle event with a time of 8.1 seconds and while he didn’t place first in the high jump, his  six feet five inch jump qualified him for the New Balance Nationals, which will be held in New York City on March 9-11.

Johnson ended up winning the hurdle event despite losing a shoe midway through the run.

Blevins’ relay team, also for Team Kentucky, which consisted of Rockcastle County’s Tori Dotson, George Rogers Clark’s (GRC) Makenzie Cooper and Morgan County’s Kailee Perry had a run for the record books.

They competed in the distance medley relay and finished with a time of 12:23.93, which ranks them top-10 in the nation. Although the time won’t count in Kentucky high school history due to the runners being on a travel team,  they would have  broken the Kentucky high school all-time record with that time, indoor or outdoor, which is held by a relay team from DuPont Manual High School back in 2013.

To learn more, check out this week’s issue of the Harrodsburg Herald.

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