Titans Cross Country Running All The Way To State
The Harrodsburg Herald/Myron Ellis
The Mercer cross country teams posed for a picture after their regional race Saturday, Oct. 22. The boys team qualified for state with a sixth place finish and the girls team were one spot short, but had two runners qualify with placements.
Wesley Bird
Herald Staff
wesley@harrodsburgherald.com
The Mercer County Titans cross county team had its ups and downs at the KHSAA Region five Class 2A meet. The boys team qualified for state with a sixth place team finish and the girls team were one point shy of state coming in seventh place.
The boys team were paced by Marshall Hart who continued his strong year with a sixth place finish on the big stage with a time of 17:45. Junior Sam Lewis finished twentieth overall running an 18:45. Senior Brady Howard came in thirty-first and the Titans final scoring runners were eighth grader Ian Alcorn and sophomore Mason Sanders.
The team as a whole finished sixth out of 11 teams to qualify for the state meet. They had an average time of 19:27 and their final score was 137.
The Mercer girls team had a heart breaking ending to their season coming up one point short of qualifying for state. The Titans finished seventh with 162 points just behind Bell County who scored 161 points and got the last qualifying spot.
Senior Clayra Darnell had a great race placing sixth for Mercer with a time of 22:24. She was followed by junior Katy Lewis who finished thirteenth and freshman Polhemus placed thirty-first.
Mercer added some new members for the race to compete as a team with senior Lindsay Jessie and eighth graders Kaylee Pendleton and Daisy Nowlin.
Although, the girls team just missed state, Darnell and K. Lewis qualified individually along with the boys team.
Mercer competes at the Class 2A state championship meet Friday, Oct. 28. The boys team will run at 4 p.m. and the qualifying girls will compete at 5 p.m.
