Lexington Catholic Invitational - GREAT DAY!!!

It was an early morning on Saturday, October 18th, to catch the bus, but then the girls could sleep while on the hour and a half long bus ride to Lexington.  This race is run at the Kentucky Horse Park - it's a famous place ... very easy to get to but very busy and crowded.  This is a huge race - is a mock up of the state championship!

It's also a big day for the boys.  Robert will be running JV (but he doesn't want to - very verbal about not wanting to run - we aren't making him run but we are making him go to the meet and support the other runners on his team if he chooses not to run).  He wasn't happy about running.

The Girls race started at 10:15.

The Varsity girls cross country team took off with a bang - they got a great start!!!

 I was able to get around the race field easily with the camera.  Each position the girls were in a great spot - especially Erin, Avery and Marissa.

Marissa just before the mile mark

Erin Edmundson finished in eighth place running a 19:48.39 quickly followed by Avery Fryman 20:14.77 in 14th and Marissa Lowe and 23rd with a 20:49.68 – all three runners before the 21 minute mark.

Marissa on the back stretch

Marissa at the finish

Avery, Maddie, Grace, Christina, Marissa and Coach Sykora

top 3:  Erin Edmundson, Marissa Lowe and Avery Fryman

Seniors:  Christina Ausley and Marissa

My amazing runners:  Erin, Marissa and Avery

Caitlyn Roberts, Jesse Sanders finished next for north to be the top five. Closely finishing right behind Jesse was Christina Ausley, Erin Olsson, Kendall Lemons and Madilyn Priddy.

As a team they took 4th place took fourth place overall against a very competitive field.  It such an important race because it is run on the state course and many schools that are going to be in the 2A state race will race today.  Two of the top four teams were single A, so they will not race against us at STATE - which means we took second.  We need to work on this - there is a chance we could take 1st, most likely 2nd or 3rd - the race is soon close.


To our surprise Robert decided to run with his team.

He got a great and I mean great start to the race and lead the way up the hill.  He stayed in the top 50 the whole race.  First for the North Team was Luc Brazeau and then Robert.

Robert and Luc Brazeau right up front

Robert leading the way for North

Mark Scherer just passing Robert to lead for North, with Robert right on his heals

The weather was chilly but that didn't seem to deter Robert.  He was driven to do well.  He stayed up in the front of the race with about another 50 boys.

 As he came to the last 800 meters of the race he continued to stride, and pass others.

Robert finished the Lexington Catholic with his best time of the year so far on the hardest course of the year so far.  He finished 40th with 18:43 finishing 2nd for our team, just behind Mark Scherer at 33rd.  WAY TO GO ROBERT!!!