Conner Lispcomb Brings Home 1st Place!
Reported by Josh Weekley
Photos by Jada Stout
Well folks. That’s a wrap. The girls finish as the Class A Runner-up. Alexis Lamb makes the podium with a 9th place finish. I think it’s fair to say that this wasn’t the meet that we wanted to have. But we also have to consider how close we were to not getting to have it at all. In the end, with a Runner-up finish, every single girl on the team gets to get on that podium. I wish you had gotten to experience the “real” awards ceremony at Cabell Midland, but that is yet another thing that we’ve been deprived of by Covid. I think the lost practice time we had coupled with the loss of complete structure in what we were able to do as we tried to protect as many of you as we could (hoping that if one of you got taken down that it would impact fewer people) really hurt us. We lost the edge we were picking up in late September/early October. Regardless, I’m proud of what this team accomplished during the season and in this super-stressful final month. As mentioned, the team got 2nd. Alexis Lamb was 9th in 21:23, less than 8 months after she started running. Emily Gola battled to 14th in 21:43. Maria Bee was 16th in 21:50. Hailey Keith had probably her 2nd best meet of the season, getting 25th in 22:24. Nora Sias gets 50th in 25:21. Audrey Smith has her best outing of the year getting 55th in 25:46. Jocelyn Atkinson caps her career with a 58th place finish in 26:01. That was probably her 2nd best run of the year as well. We ran this course in our first meet of the season. Emily was 1:03 faster today. Maria was 28 seconds faster today. Hailey was 1:43 faster today. Nora was 4:11 faster today, and Jocelyn was 2:14 faster today. Ladies, go ahead and set your eyes toward next year. We can do big things.
The Boys also finish as the runner-up. Depth was the key as the Ritchie guy that was their #1 at the Regional was only their #4 today, but others stepped up. Carter Lipscomb, of course, finished his season undefeated, taking this one by 1:26 on a bit of a bum foot, cracking the 16:00 barrier with a 15:57. People who have never done this sport really have no idea the work he’s put in and just how hard it is to be undefeated. He just missed the A-AA Course record, and we can attribute that to the cold weather and soft course. If he had gotten to run at 1:15 when the AA Boys ran, I have no doubt he’d own that record. He becomes just our 3rd Official Individual Champion, joining Levi Grandt and Denny Hayes. Trent Gola runs an excellent race to take the 2nd spot in 17:23. He knocked off a guy who had beaten him pretty soundly 2 or 3 times this season. Trent caught him in the final mile and put distance on him and looked very strong on the track. Maybe, just maybe, Trent will set his eyes on being our 4th Individual Champion next year. Brennan Miller, who has had to overcome so much over the last two years, ends his career with an 18th place finish in 18:21. William Atkinson caps his career by fighting to a 22nd place finish in 18:37. Joshua Berke finished up his freshman campaign with a 36th place finish in 19:42. Logan Currey rounds it out with a 67th place finish in 24:23. I might call that his best ever run. He was faster at Magnolia, but this is a more difficult course in less ideal conditions. Like with the girls, I really believe that time we lost during this month really hurt us, and we didn’t have time once we got cleared to run again to really get back into the groove. Not getting to compete for 3 weeks and then going straight into Regional and State Competition is far from ideal. But that is the hand we were dealt, and while I know you are disappointed that we did not win the team title, please understand that I certainly know that it was not from lack of effort. Again, we ran this course in our season opener. Carter was 16 seconds faster today. Trent was 17 seconds faster today. Brennan was 37 seconds faster today. Will was 1:35 faster today. Josh was 1:39 faster today, and Logan was 3:42 faster today. Be proud of what you’ve done this year guys. You earned everything you got. Those that are coming back next year, it’s going to be a harder road to get back, but you can do it.
