Slacking off cost her a state title, so this eastern Kentucky athlete went back to work

Selena Mattingly wasn’t able to successfully defend her 2015 Class A cross country state championship last season. The Williamsburg runner didn’t even place in the top three.

She slacked off as a sophomore, she said.

“I gained a little weight and I had a hip injury that discouraged me a lot,” said Mattingly, who ran fifth at state in 2016. “I wasn’t running as hard in practice as I should’ve and tried to keep off of it as much as I could. But I got past that and worked really hard this season.”

The junior worked hard enough to re-ascend to the crown, overtaking Morgan County’s Kailee Perry in the KHSAA Class A Cross Country State Championship race Saturday morning at the Kentucky Horse Park.

CLASS A STATE CROSS COUNTRY RESULTS

CLASS 2A STATE CROSS COUNTRY RESULTS

CLASS 3A STATE CROSS COUNTRY RESULTS

Mattingly ran the course in 19:28.72, bettering Perry — last year’s champ as a sophomore — by a little more than 16 seconds. Perry had the fasted performance-list time coming into the meet while Mattingly had the eighth fastest.

“I knew I didn’t have the fastest times cause I haven’t been running the best during the season … but I knew it was possible for me to run it. I just hadn’t yet.”

Williamsburg is in the bottom 50 of total student enrollment and is among the smallest 20 public schools in the state. Mattingly relishes her hometown.

“They’re so supportive of me,” Mattingly said. “People, they’ll be like, ‘Oh you’re Selena!’ I don’t know them but they know me. It’s really flattering that I can make an impact and say something for our school.”

One thing Williamsburg doesn’t have? A true course on which to emulate the conditions of a course race-day competitors used Saturday.

“We just have roads and hills everywhere,” Mattingly said with a laugh. “We make the best with what we can. It’s a lot of blacktop but we manage.”

Lexington Christian finished third in the girls’ team standings behind Bishop Brossart and Walton-Verona.

Rockcastle’s first

Lexington Catholic star Michaela Reinhart dominated the Class 2A girls’ race each of the last two seasons. Luckily for the field, Reinhart graduated in May.

That opened the door for Rockcastle County sophomore Victoria Dotson, who bested Highlands freshman Maggie Schroeder by nearly two seconds to win this year’s title. Dotson finished second overall as a freshman, but nearly a minute behind Reinhart, who’s now at Duke University and last week was named Atlantic Coast Conference Freshman of the Year.

Dotson, the first cross country titlist in Rockcastle County’s history, hopes she can keep hold of the reins Reinhart left behind.

“I would like to be able to pull it off (over multiple years) like Michaela Reinhart did,” Dotson said. “I’d love to be able to be such a great competitor, athlete and person like she was.”

Two titles on one day?

Tates Creek junior Jenna Strange had her best finish yet at state, taking third place behind seniors Kaitlyn Lacy (Male) and Alena Sapienza-Wright (Manual) in the Class 3A girls’ race.

Strange likely will be among the favorites to win next year’s event. She also plays soccer, and Tates Creek should be among the contenders for the 11^th Region title in 2018. A deep postseason run could lead to a state-title daily double; the state soccer finals each year are held on the same day as the cross country championships.

What would Strange make of such a dilemma?

“Hopefully that’ll be a thing next year,” Strange said with a grin. “(My coaches) know that running comes first, so I’ll definitely go all-out for cross country but I’ll try to have as much energy as I can for that game, so I’m hoping it goes good.”

This story was originally published November 4, 2017 at 5:19 PM with the headline "Slacking off cost her a state title, so this eastern Kentucky athlete went back to work."