Mason County junior Layla Henderson finished in third place at the Class 2A Region 6 Championship on Friday afternoon at Boyd County. (Brad Laux, 1016 Sports)
HIGH SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY
CANNONSBURG — Host Boyd County ended Mason County’s three-year run of team titles at Friday’s Class 2A Region 6 Cross Country Championship.
Behind the top two individual finishers: Sophia Newsome and Sami Govey, The Lady Lions edged the Lady Royals by nine points, 42 to 51.
However, Mason County had some good news as the boys’ team finished fourth and earned a bid to next week’s state meet, ending a two-year drought. The Royals tallied 115 points to edge East Carter (116) and Rowan County (118) for the final at-large spot.
Despite the girls’ runner-up finish, Mason County coach Mark Kachler was pleased with the performance of the two teams.
“Both (the boys’ and girls’) squads ran super well. The girls finished second to a super strong Boyd County girls’ team and our guys pulled off something that we were hoping to do by getting the team in the state meet (which we did) by one point. So, it was an excellent night,” he said. “I think it was a full-team effort for both the boys and the girls tonight. Everybody did their job.”
Boyd County swept the podium, winning both team and individual titles. It was the fourth consecutive boys’ team crown, while the girls captured their first regional since back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013.
Three Lady Royals earned a spot on the podium. Junior Layla Henderson finished third by covering the 5K course in 19:06.16, with classmate Paige Decker in fifth in 19:20.96 and senior Alyssa Bisotti in eighth at 19:39.34.
It was the highest regional finish of Bisotti’s career.
“Coach told us in the beginning that Boyd County was going to go out pretty fast and I typically don’t start off very fast. So, since he had mentioned that I decided to give it a try and I started off quick and kept that pace throughout the whole race,” she said. “I personally like to speed up my finish, and so I try to keep a little bit of gas in the tank to push at the end and I managed to pass one girl at the finish line and (was) close to another one, but overall, the race was really good today.”
Sophomore Jennifer Buttery was 16th in 20:53.85, junior Elizabeth Lavinder was 19th in 21:08.00, junior Morgan Carpenter was 30th in 21:57.47 and senior Kylee Howe was 34th in 22:10.38 to round out the Lady Royal runners.
Freshmen Dashawn Overly and Elijah Reed paced the Royals by placing 17th and 18th in 18:18.78 and 18:21.95, respectively, over the 5K course. Sophomore Peyton Ullery finished 24th in 18:52.03, with junior Jackson Truesdell in 26th in 18:53.37, junior Cole Wright in 30th in 19:00.33, freshman Alex Brannon in 39th in 20:49.13 and sophomore Casey Magee in 44th in 22:25.25 to cap off the Royal boys.
Boyd County senior JB Terrill won the boys’ race in 15:35.75.
The KHSAA Class 2A State Championship will be next Friday at the Bourbon County Cross Country Course in Paris. The girls’ race will start at 4 p.m., with the boys’ race slated to begin at 5 p.m.
