This past weekend Logan County’s cross country teams traveled to Ephram White Park in Bowling Green for the Warren East Raider Twilight Classic. Veteran coach Greg Howard says performances were better than he had expected.
Logan got strong runs from freshman Meredith Johnson and senior Levi Crossley.
The evening started off with 6th grader Price Violette setting a new personal best (9:17) and a 24th place in the elementary 2K race, while besting his time from last year by almost two minutes. Not to be outdone was Zach Baker in the 3K boys middle school race. Baker came in 25th and his time of 13:24 was over two minutes faster than his time of last year.
Two varsity runners stole the show, one by a freshman first-year runner and the other by a veteran senior. Meredith Johnson broke onto the scene with an outstanding race in the girls’ varsity 5K race. She finished in 5th place with a time of 22:05.
Howard says, “Her performance is quite incredible, considering she had never even been in a meet before, let alone a major invitational. She slipped on the wet grass as she turned to come into the finished and went down. She got up and held off the runners trying to take advantage of her mishap. Her efforts earned her a ranking as the 4th best runner in Region 2 AAA and a ranking as the 91st fastest female runner in all of Kentucky. Not a bad way to start a career!”
Levi Crossley made a statement in his final season as a Cougar as he placed 8th (17:58) and an 11th place ranking in Region 2 AAA and a 73rd place ranking in AAA. Levi led his teammates to an 8th place finish in a very competitive invitational. Finishing in 34th was freshman Gage Cousineau (19:05), 46th sophomore Thomas Lyne (19:38), 8th 48th Tanner Morrow (19:42), 63rd freshman Conner Dill (20:19).
Howard says, “It’s obvious we are very young but our kids understand the tradition of our program and work hard to continue that legacy. We have other runners that are making strides trying to get in shape and get in a race soon.”
Four of the five were in the top half of the 115 runners.
Despite three of the five runners being a sophomore or younger, the Cougars placed eighth among 11 teams, 80 points ahead of ninth place Allen County-Scottsville
The young Cougars will be in action this Saturday as they travel to Kereiakes Park in Bowling Green for the Purple Strider Invitational.