The Lafayette Cross Country team traveled to Louisville to compete at the Trinity Valkyrie meet on September 21st, 2024. The boys and girls teams both had impressive performances against tough opposition from all over the country. The Generals were involved in six separate races: boys and girls freshmen/sophomore, boys and girls junior/senior and boys and girls seeded.
The day started early with the boys freshmen/sophomore at 8 a. m.. Sophomore Dylan Brock was the first Lafayette runner to cross the finish line for the boys in the freshmen/sophomore race, finishing with an impressive time of 17:19, which earned him fifth overall in the race. The girls freshmen/sophomore race followed shortly after, with the Generals being led by sophomore Abigail Meece, who finished with a time of 25:55. The boys placed sixth overall out of 27 total teams, with an average time of 18:39.
The boys junior/senior race was up next. Junior Spencer Fuqua finished first for the Generals in this race, running a time of 19:03, which was a personal best by two seconds, improving from his previous best race. There was only one girl in the junior/senior race, junior Ava Gentner, who finished with a time of 33:05. The boys placed 11th out of a total of 19 teams in the junior/senior race.
The varsity squads competed in the seeded races (the race for varsity squads of the teams competing), which proved to be fast and competitive, with some of the best runners from Kentucky and from neighboring states such as Indiana and Tennessee entering the seeded race to get the best competition they can find. The boys were up first with an impressive display from junior Xavier Richardson, who finished with a time of 15:40, earning him 33rd place out of 352 runners in the seeded boys race. The girls followed with impressive performances of their own, being led by senior Sophia Cahill, who ran a time of 20:30. The girls placed 18th overall as a team, while the boys finished ninth overall.
When asked about the team’s overall performance in the meet, junior Jackson Profitt said, “As a team we did good, many different people had good personal records. Varsity placed second out of all Kentucky teams so we’re happy with that as a varsity squad.”
With the team heading into championship racing soon, Lafayette faces competition from rivals within the city and region. When Profitt was asked about how the team will approach the challenge, or maybe change strategy for championship races, he said, “As a team we have a really good chance of winning the city and region meets but if something was to change we should run closer to each other to get better placements within those meets.”.
Overall, the Generals had impressive performances from both the girls and boys. Both varsity and JV impressed on the fast Trinity course, leading to 17 people running a new personal best time. The biggest improvement came from freshman Max Edelen, who ran a whopping two minutes and 29 seconds faster than his previous personal best, shattering his personal record.
The cross country team had an overall excellent day, with many noteable performances from across the board. Congrats Generals!
