By LINDA JONES Wayne County Schools
Monticello — Wayne County's Cross Country program continues to make school history with the season finishing on a strong note at state competition, due to the efforts of three young athletes.
Three outstanding Wayne County runners‹ Trevor Shearer, Katie McFarland, and Rachael Jones‹made their marks at the state Cross Country Championship held at the Kentucky Horse Park on November 14.
"The most impressive thing with all three runners was that they all ran a Œpersonal best' time at the state championships," said Coach Kevin Jones.
"As a coach, that's about all you can ask for."
Trevor Shearer, an eighth grader at Wayne County Middle School, ran a tremendous race with a time 18:29.
"Trevor kind of got boxed in during the first mile, but really went to work on his second mile. To finish 57th out of 232 in his first state cross country championship shows why he is one of the top middle school runners in the state of Kentucky. In fact, he was the top middle school finisher in the 2A race that was loaded with upperclassmen," said Coach Jones.
Trevor's goal was to break 19 minutes, so he said he was most proud of his time. "Last year we came up here to support Katie, so I got familiar with the competition. But, they changed the course slightly this year."
"I have high hopes for my senior year after finishing as the top middle schooler," said Shearer, who is currently beginning his basketball season.
"I like cross country because it is different from everything else. You don't have to depend on others on the team when you are running as an individual," explained Shearer.
Fellow eighth grader Katie McFarland was equally pleased with her performance. "I knocked about a minute and a half off my time from region."
She plays softball in the spring and having run cross country kept her fit to run for balls in the outfield position. She attributed her experience from the previous year at state competition to her success, even though the course had been redesigned. Plus she said the weather conditions had greatly improved since it dipped down to 30 degrees and was sleeting during the previous year.
"It was a great top 50 finish for Katie, out of 194 runners," noted Coach Jones. "She ran a really strong race. She was just hitting her stride at the state meet and it showed with a personal best time of 22:17 and improved her finish place from last year."
"Rachael Jones (also an eighth grader) ran a personal best time of 24:30, but she was a little disappointed in her place of 122 out of 194 runners. She had been battling an ankle injury the last month of the season," said Coach Jones. "It was still very impressive to make it in her first year of running cross country."
"I really wanted to go to state," said Jones. "You have to be different to do this sport. You have to be mentally capable to push yourself to your limits," explained Jones.
"It was a great accomplishment for these three runners to make it to state," said Jones. "I'm really proud of our runners."
The three athletes praised their coach saying he truly believes in them.
Plus, they said he makes them be the first ones at the meet so they can walk the course and be familiar with it, knowing where they can catch other runners. They pointed out that it takes brain power to be a cross country runner and their entire team is mainly composed of honor roll students.
Jones said the team had endured some tough weather throughout the later part of the season, so they appreciated the nice weather on the day of competition. The runners had been coached all week prior to the state competition to not be satisfied with just getting to the final competition.
So, the runners continued to work extremely hard and it showed with their places and times.
"The future is really bright for these three runners, as well as our whole program," said Jones. He is already making plans for next year and the regional championship will be held in Wayne County at Cave Lake.