Brush up on high school cross country ahead of this weekend’s regional races

Cross country regionals taking place across the state this weekend will decide who’s competing in next weekend’s state championships.

Lexington has teams competing in every division. The five public schools are in Class 3A, Lexington Catholic competes in Class 2A and Lexington Christian and Sayre in Class A.

Despite the divisional differences, you can catch seven of those teams in one place Saturday. Danville High School’s Admiral Stadium will host the Class 3A, Region 6 championships as well the Class A, Region 5 championships, two regions that are home to Lexington schools. Lexington Catholic, aligned in Class 2A’s Region 4, will compete Saturday at Sherman Elementary School in Grant County.

The number of teams that advance to state is contingent upon the number of teams that enter each event; the top five individuals not on a state-bound team also qualify for state.

Class 3A, Region 6 has 10 teams in its alignment — the five Lexington public schools as well as Anderson County, Clark County, Montgomery County, Scott County and Woodford County — meaning it would send five boys’ and five girls’ teams to state as long as every school fields a complete team. Only nine girls’ teams were entered each of the last two seasons, meaning the region sent only four girls’ teams to the state championships.

Tates Creek won the boys’ and girls’ titles last season, becoming the first school to sweep since Paul Laurence Dunbar did so in 2009. Commodores Alex Mortimer and Jenna Strange, who won those races last year, return as a senior and sophomore, respectively.

Fifteen other teams are placed in Class A, Region 5 with Lexington Christian and Sayre, but last year only seven boys’ and seven girls’ teams competed at the regional. If that holds, four of the seven teams would move on.

LCA placed four of its boys’ runners in the top five a year ago, three of whom —Adam Huff, Adam Wier and Andrew Madden — return along with Connor Hayes and Will Brittain, who finished in the top 10 last season. The Eagles went on to win the program’s first state team title.

Lexington Catholic’s region has nine total schools but has fielded only six girls’ teams each of the last two seasons; only three of them would advance to state if that trend holds.

Last year, LexCath star Michaela Reinhart won the girls’ race by more than a minute on her way to her first individual state title. Highlands edged LexCath for the boys’ regional title last season but graduated four runners who placed in the top six.

This story was originally published October 27, 2016 at 5:58 PM with the headline "Brush up on high school cross country ahead of this weekend’s regional races."