Cross country: Tates Creek’s Mortimer and Strange repeat as region champs; Dunbar boys and Tates Creek girls win team titles

A couple of Commodores have made a habit of dominating cross country regionals of late. Tates Creek’s Alex Mortimer and Jenna Strange finished well ahead of the pack in their respective races, repeating as Region 6, Class 3A champs in Danville on Saturday.

Strange led the Tates Creek girls to their second-straight team title, while Mortimer paced the Commodores boys to a second-place finish. Paul Dunbar ran away with the boys’ team championship, as five of the Bulldogs’ six runners finished in the top eight, including second, third and fourth places.

Mortimer traversed the hilly terrain surrounding Danville High School’s Admiral Stadium in just under 16 minutes, nearly 18 seconds ahead of runner-up Matthew Inman.

The senior, who has a scholarship offer from the University of Kentucky, said Saturday’s course presented some unique challenges.

“This is definitely the hardest course we’ve run on so far this year,” he said. “I didn’t know what to expect coming into this race because there are so many hills in the back half. I had to be really conservative in the beginning because I was worried about fading out and someone else who ran a smart race catching me.”

Mortimer said Saturday was just another step toward preparing for the state meet next Saturday at the Kentucky Horse Park.

“This is a really good tune-up for next weekend where hopefully I can make a run for the state title,” he said.

Strange agreed that the course was more demanding than most, but the sophomore seemed to have little trouble adjusting. She finished with a time of 19:50.43, more than a minute and 11 seconds ahead of second-place Emma Taylor of Clark County.

Strange credited her experience as a member of Tates Creek’s soccer team with helping her prepare for the demands of cross country.

“Playing soccer helps me get a feel for the sprints in these races,” she said. “It’s just naturally a sprint when you’re chasing down the ball in soccer and that helps me when I’m getting my lead-outs in cross country.”

First-year head coach Allison Parks, who was an assistant with the Commodores for three seasons prior to assuming the lead role, was brimming with superlatives for her dynamic duo after Saturday’s races, saying she “just got so lucky.”

“I’m blessed to be a part of this team with what I inherited,” Parks said. “people see Alex win, and they don’t necessarily realize the hard work he puts in. His work ethic has kind of spread among the group … and (Jenna) just puts the work in and she’s aggressive when she runs and she doesn’t give up.”

After ceding the boys’ team championship to Tates Creek in 2015, Dunbar captured its second regional title in three years. Second-year head coach Jean Balan said the Bulldogs’ lack of “individual egos” was a key to recapturing the top spot.

“The guys just run for the team,” he said. “Those guys train as a group and all they want to do is win as a team. That’s the mindset they come with everyday and it showed today.”

Matthew Inman said the Bulldogs are ready to make some noise at state.

“I’m so excited that we won as a team, especially in my senior year,” he said. “This year we’re definitely looking forward to placing in the top five at state.”

The top five teams in both 3A races advance to the state tournament along with the top five individual runners who aren’t on teams that qualified for state.

LCA SWEEPS REGION 5, CLASS A TITLES

Adam Huff took the boys’ title and Kendall Hayes the girls’ to secure a sweep by Lexington Christian in the 5th Region, Class A races on Saturday. Three LCA girls finished in the top four, with Sydney Weeks taking third place and Madeline Pulliam placing fourth. Adam Wier finished third in the boys’ race while Andrew Madden and Connnor Hayes finished fifth and sixth, respectively.

This story was originally published October 29, 2016 at 6:24 PM with the headline "Cross country: Tates Creek’s Mortimer and Strange repeat as region champs; Dunbar boys and Tates Creek girls win team titles."