Mercer Boys X-Country Team Finish 18th At State
Clayra Darnell Places Top 60 At State For Sixth Year In A Row
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Mercer sophomore Marshall Hunt finished 21st at the Class 2A state cross country championship on Friday, Oct. 28.
Wesley Bird
Herald Staff
wesley@harrodsburgherald.com
The Mercer County Titans cross country team competed in the KHSAA class 2A state cross country championship in Paris Friday, Oct. 28.
Mercer’s boys team qualified for state after finishing sixth in the regional meet and came in eighteenth at state out of the 32 participating schools. Sophomore Marshall Hart has been Mercer’s top performer for the boys this season and finished twenty-first out of 255 runners. He ran a time of 17:19 with the first place runner finishing in 15:38.
Junior Sam Lewis placed sixty-fourth to complete a strong season. Senior Brady Howard, junior Mason Sanders and eighth grader Ian Alcorn were the Titans other scoring runners.
The team as a whole ran an average time of 19:03 and finished with a score of 470.
Head Coach Derek McIntyre was proud of his team in his first year in charge.
“Our runners showed up prepared and ran well; they are already talking about next season and setting those early goals,” McIntyre said. We have a large group of eighth graders moving up next season and I feel they have seen what it takes to be competitive at a varsity level and are committed to doing it.”
The girls team was one point shy of qualifying for state, but senior Clayra Darnell and junior Katy Lewis did qualify with their times at region.
This was Darnell’s sixth straight trip to state and every year she has placed amongst the top sixty runners. In her final race, Darnell finished forty-fourth with a time of 21:51 to end her great cross country career at Mercer. Lewis had the Titans third best placement of the day coming in fifty-second with a time of 22:00.
McIntyre pointed out the impact his seniors have had on the program.
“Losing three seniors is always tough,” McIntyre said. Clayra and Brady have been part of the cross country team for many years and have always been runners I can count on. They will be missed for the leadership they showed the younger runners as well as the quality times they always put in.”
