For the next six weeks, the Kentucky high school Indoor Track and Field season will take place starting at University of Kentucky’s Nutter Field House on Saturday.
Over 100 schools compete in the season’s first meet at UK. Mason County is then the center of it all for the next five weeks with meets at the newly resurfaced track at the Carmeuse Mason County STEAM Indoor Athletic Complex.
The first five meets are more of a trial run leading into the state meet on March 7.
All throughout February on Saturday, schools from all over the state will be making the visit to Maysville to ramp up for the state meet in the first weekend of March. Over 100 schools and 2,500 student-athletes will end up competing in the six meets, meaning more traffic and business to Maysville.
“These meets make us self-sufficient, we buy our own equipment, uniforms. They also bring in money to local restaurants, and it trickles down from there,” Mason County coach Mark Kachler said. “All the credit goes to the people that help, it takes huge numbers of people to make these meets work. We have 30-plus volunteers working every weekend to help the kids and the program.”
The indoor season is similar to the outdoor one with it classified into three classes.
This season marks the seventh that the STEAM Complex has hosted the meets.
The host Mason County and their girls’ team has claimed second-place finishes in Class AA the last five years, behind their nemesis Rockcastle County who edged out the Lady Royals by six points in 2019.
“They’ve been really good for a really long time. Saturday will give us a little preview or peak of what’s going on. They’re a program that consistently churns out champions. We’re getting close, got within six points last year,” Kachler said.
Mason County lost some key parts from last year’s runner-up team, especially in the field and sprint events. Abi Dawson and Olivia O’Hearn have departed with graduation, a loss in points in the field events and pieces to relay teams. A strong distance running crew returns with Paige Decker, Elizabeth Lavinder, Alyssa Bisotti, Morgan Carpenter and Hayden Faris headlining those events, from the 400 meters and up.
“We’ve got some significant losses, gaps to fill and others with the opportunity to step up. We’ve got another young crop of middle school sprinters that I think can help us in the future. Our gaps will be in the field events and short sprints. The 400 and up we’re very deep and loaded,” Kachler said.
The Royals also have some key pieces back, starting with state champ Isaiah Riggs in the 3,000 meters in ‘19, Lang Touchton was a third place finisher in the shot put while Nicholas Drury added a fourth in the 800. The Royals also have a lot of members from their relay teams back as well. While the girls’ team had some significant losses, the boys’ team returns nearly everybody and adds depth with it.
“The numbers are really up, especially on the boys side. Probably up over 20 percent in numbers from last year,” Kachler said.
Some of that additional depth includes Carson Adams, Asher Braughton and Cole Jones.
“It’s a solid core group, we’ve had several football players come out to help give us more depth,” Kachler said.
Fleming County has Class AA state champion Erin Pease back, Pease winning the girls’ 55-meter hurdles in ‘19, teammate Audrey Suit finishing right behind her in second.
Bracken County has Kaleb Darnell back from a big state meet last season, winning the Class A long jump, placing second in the triple jump and fourth in the 55-meter dash. The Polar Bears no longer have distance runners Brandon Cox and Jared Jefferson, Cox winning the 3,000 meters and Jefferson placing third last season.
Some changes between indoor and outdoor are the sprinting events are either shortened or not contested. The 100-meter dash and the 110-meter hurdles are shortened to 55 meters while the 200, 4×100 and 4×200 events are not contested during the indoor season. The discus is also not contested. Every other event is similar, only differences is a lot more turns, like the 3,000 meters being 26.5 laps on the shorter track. There’s 14 events compared to 18 for outdoor season.
Each meet typically begins around 8 a.m. with the pole vault, other events following at 10 a.m. on a rolling schedule.
