Mercer Sends Both Cross Country Teams To State
The Harrodsburg Herald/Sam Warren
Sam Lewis, Katie Lewis and Marshall Hart were the top three over all runners for Mercer County at the Region 5 meet on Saturday, Oct. 21.
Sam Warren
Herald Staff
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For the first time since 2006, both boys and girls Mercer County Cross Country teams qualified for the KHSAA State Cross Count1y Championship at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington.
Junior Marshall Hart finrshed first amongst all Mercer mnners with a time of 17:21.16. Hart’s time was enough to claim the title of second fastest runner in Class AA Region 5. Senior Sam Lewis finished just behind Hart in fourth place with a time of 17:36.58. There was a bit of a gap between Mercer’s second and third fastest runners as freshman Ian Alcorn finished 24 out of 68 runners with a time of 19:35.78. Karson Kerr finished in 31st place with a time of 20:21.30 and Landon Bryant finished out of the top five for Mercer boys with a time of 20:36.03.
The boys finished with 10 less points than fourth place finishers Wayne County but weren’t close to catching Corbin. The Redhounds’ top five runners accumulated just 44 points compared to Mercer’s 96. Bell County finished in second place with 65 points, and Boyle County was the final team to qualify for state with 110.
Katie Lewis was the leader for the girls team, finishing in seventh place with a time of 22:44.46. Junior Adriana Polhemus was close behind with a time of 23:41.26. Julia Hart did well to place fifteenth with a time of 24:43.48, a new personal record for the seventh grader. Layla Nowlin also finished with a personal best time of 25:55.63.
