Beechwood Boys and Girls Track & Field Teams Sweep 1A State Titles

[Runcible Owl]

🐯🏆🐯🏆 | University of Kentucky, Lexington

1️⃣ The Tiger boys follow their first Regional championship last week with a win at State. 

3️⃣ No Regional title? No problem for Beechwood's girls. For the third time in the last five seasons, they've been runner-up in Region 4, then pulled off a State meet feat. 

🎉 Congratulations to the Tigers and the Beechwood community! 

I followed this "live" today online. Will post meet highlights soon. Please join in here to post your takes on today's results. I'm very excited about this week!

🔵 MileSplitKY is an official KHSAA partner for meet/team/athlete data. Link to scores and performances below:

milesplit.live/KY_1A_Championships

[theguru]

I am so impressed by Beechwood and I like knowing there is so much speed in Fort Mitchell these days.

 

[Runcible Owl]

6 hours ago, theguru said:

I am so impressed by Beechwood and I like knowing there is so much speed in Fort Mitchell these days.

 

There's track speed, then there's football speed, and it's great to have both. Tigers return their entire 4 x 100 Relay (Aylor SO > Pabst FR > Cusick JR > Erdman JR, all ballers) next season, just a couple of ticks off the 1A record this year. 

Luke Erdman is now amongst the elite of "small school" football/track athletes - think Aaron Payne (Lou. Holy Cross), Al Baker (Trigg Co.) from the 80's. Baker's State 1A 100 mark is doable next spring too. Would have liked to see Mayfield's Starks and Biggers line up with him today, they did yeoman's work on relays for the Cardinals instead.

[Runcible Owl]

🔴 Boys' meet ~ 

Brossart broke out first with a Class record in the 4x800. Collegiate followed with a 1-2 finish in the High Hurdles, then Beechwood tied the team lead at 18 points with a win in the 100. 

The Tigers scoring run was on, beginning with a 4th in the Shot Put. The remainder of the meet was really a race for second, though Collegiate took their final lead with another gold-silver hurdles score. Beechwood re-took the lead with a second in the 800 and the Titans, though flush with star power, just didn't have the team depth to keep up. 

⭐ Race of the Day: 1600 Meter Run ~

Fastest 1-2-3 finish in any Class in Kentucky State Meet history(?).

1. 4:13.80 Roman Sierpina, Collegiate (JR)

2. 4:14.53 Nathan Ruth, Brossart (SR)

3. 4:15.18 James Gurley, Collegiate (SO)

⏱️ New 1A Meet Record ~ 

4x800 Relay: 8:07.53, Bishop Brossart. The Mustang quartet of Nick Heck, Griffin Hill, Brennan Callahan, and Ryan Clines took down St. Henry's (Gordy Dooley, Michael Whitehead, Jacob Cherry, and Michael Robinson) 2008 mark. 

🥇🥇🥇 Boys Multi-event winners ~ 

Luke Erdman, Beechwood (JR): 100, 200, 4x100R.

Oliver Veliquette, Lou. Collegiate (SR): 100H, 300H. 

Maurice Moore, Fort Campbell (SR): 4x200R, 4x400R. 

Mateo Cerrito Gatto, Fort Campbell (JR): 4x200R, 4x400R. 

McKenzie Andrews, Fort Campbell (SO): 4x200R, 4x400R. 

📖 Athletes of note ~

🐎 Nathan Ruth, Bishop Brossart. The Mustang senior closes out a terrific high school career as one of NKY's best distance runners - '23 State XC champ, multiple Regional and State T&F titles (including the 800 at this meet). Hope his collegiate career at NKU is stellar. Coach Kruse got a good one to become a Norse. 

⚔️ Emmanuel Dut, Danville Christian. A star on the basketball court too, the Warrior senior became the school's first State T&F champion with a sub 49 400 and had a hand in scoring all of the Warriors team points (400, 200, and 4x400R). @24Rocks, you'll let us know where Emmanuel lands in college?

🦉 Expect Beechwood to be title contenders again next season. Girls' meet breakdown to come ...

[24Rocks]

Immanuel is going to Asbury to run track.  I’m not sure if he’s going to play basketball as well.

[Runcible Owl]

🔴 Girls' meet ~ 

📝 Beechwood won the day's first race, the 4 x 800 and held the team lead through five scored events. LCA passed the Tigers with 2nd and 3rd place finishes in the 1600, though Lily Parke won the race. 

The Lady Eagles held or shared the lead over the next four events, and then the 400 happened ... Maryah Counts and Caroline Nordman went gold-silver, and Bishop Brossart became the #2, hot on the Tiger's heels. Beechwood ended the day as they started, with a relay win in the 4 x 400.

🐅 91, 🐎 81, 🦅 76. Overall a very competitive and exciting day. Kudos too to the young ladies from fourth place Leslie County; coach Hillary Meehan has built one of the best "mountain" squads in recent memory. 

⏱️ 📏 New 1A Meet Records ~ 

• 100: 12.12, Briley Cline (SR) - Paris. The Lady Greyhound broke her record tying mark of 12.20 from last year, a record she shared with Todd Co Central's Angela Payne from 1980. 

• 200: 24.78, Briley Cline shaved 0.04 seconds off Sharika Smith's (Fulton Co) 2007 time.  

• Discus: 132-7, Anna Guard (SR) - St. Henry. Anna added nearly four feet to the 128-11 mark set by Walton-Verona's Maggie Buerger just two years ago. 

Guard joins a long list of Crusader record holders; the names Maureen Egan (1600) and Mary Dwyer (800) are still on the books from the '80's. 

🥇🥇🥇 Girls' Multi-Event Winners ~ 

• Natalie Svidal, Walden (SO): 100H, Long Jump, Triple Jump. 

• Lily Parke, Beechwood (SO): 800, 1600, 4x800R. 

• Maryah Counts, Beechwood (SR): 400, 4x400R.

• Iris Napier, Leslie Co. (SR): 4x100R, 4x200R.

• Emily Roark, Leslie Co. (JR): 4x100R, 4x200R. 

• Haley Smith, Leslie Co. (SO): 4x100R, 4x200R. 

📖 Athletes of note ~ 

• Kennedy Moughamian, LCA: The 8th grader, followed up her State Indoor Meet 3000 win with a gold medal today in the 3200. She also placed 4th in last year's State XC meet, leading the Lady Eagles to a runner-up finish.  

• Relay Team Members • 

Whether they're underclassmen "making their bones" before repping their teams individually, or veterans who've ground it out for four or more years, they are the unsung. For the girls who don't have the name cache of being a multi-event athlete or two-sport footballer, that's a shame. 

Here's a list of yesterday's gold medal winners who wouldn't ordinarily get "ink". 

• Leslie County 🥇 Eden Melton and Ava Napier. 

• Beechwood 🥇 Charlie Gerrein, Annie Harris, Catie Hazzard, Maddy Brauch, Ruby Fries, and Lana Holt. 

😊

[Runcible Owl]

🧐 If I may, a bit of history, and a scenario to ponder ~ 

🥇 1A • The Boys' championship sometimes runs through NKY (Bellevue 5x, Brossart 4x, St. Henry 3x, Walton-Verona 1x, Beechwood 1x), while the Girls' title road frequently stops in NKY (St. Henry 11x, Brossart 8x, New Cath 3x, Beechwood 3x, Bellevue 2x, Dayton 2x). Beginning with Dayton's second win in 1995, 26 of 29* titles have come North. Phenomenal. 

💡 Dual/triangular meets aren't really a thing now like they were in my day. I think it'd be great though, with the emergence of Beechwood's program, to put on a Cov Cath - Beechwood - Notre Dame - Brossart "Speed Week" meet. It would be very competitive.

Think the fan turnout would be good and look at other facets of some rivalries. Maybe rotate host sights? Cov Cath's track could handle a smaller meet, Notre Dame has a nice facility, and Brossart's MAC is awesome. Hmm ...