Despite placing all seven runners in the top 20 in the region, the Logan County Cougars finished second in their Class 2A regional meet at the Madisonville-North Hopkins cross country track Nov. 6.
That regional runner-up spot, however, qualified Coach Greg Howard to take his team to state competition at the New Horse Park in Lexington Nov. 13. The Cougars placed 12th out of 30 teams there.
Sophomore Claire Hopkins qualified as an individual from her 17^th place finish at region. She ran a 23:41.43 at region and a 24:29.76 at state, which placed her 157^th among the 220 runners at state.
The sophomore class is the nucleus of Logan County High School distance running in both cross country in the fall and track in the spring. The top three LCHS boys times at region were recorded by 10^th graders Sye Head, Noah Thomas and Colton Spencer while classmate Troy Fulcher also ran at region and state. Joining Hopkins on the Lady Cougar contingent was classmate Sheldon Wharton.
None of the runners Howard entered at region are seniors, and one of them, Cory Ford, is an eighth grader.
Head, who has been the Cougars’ top runner throughout the season, finished third at region and was also the top Cougar at state, placing 30th among 236 runners. His times were almost identical in the two races, averaging 17:41. Thomas was fifth at region and Spencer sixth among all runners, but junior Evan Harris had the second fastest time at state, placing 81^st.
Webster County runners place 2^nd, 4^th, 7^th, 9^th and 12^th at region, placing them slightly ahead of Logan. Calloway County was a distant third in a field of nine teams, which included Hopkinsville and Paducah Tilghman. Ironically, Logan had won sweepstakes competition at the Webster County Invitational earlier in the season. North Oldham won the state championship; South Warren was 7 ^th and Webster County 8^th at state.
Regional placements for the boys: 3) Sye Head 17:39.99, 5) Noah Thomas 17:49.84, 6) Colton Spencer 17:51.40, 10) Evan Harris 18:01.11, 16) Jacob Speck 18:27.47 17) Cory Ford 18:39.6, 20) Troy Fulcher 18:43.75.
State finishes for the Cougars: 30) Head 17:43.26, 81) Harris 18:36.56, 101) Thomas 18:52.75, 102) Spencer 18:53.98, 123) Speck 19:21.24, 141) Ford 19:34.32 and 144) Fulcher 19:38.72.
Regional placements for the Lady Cougars:: 17) Claire Hopkins 23:41.53, 19) Sammi Collins 24:29.25, 24) Amber Thorlton 25:17.9, 35) Miranda Cole 27:45.27, 38) Sheldon Wharton 28:48.72.