Seventh-grader Abby Bastin won the Class AA state championship in the 1,600-meter run Friday. (Tim Estes Photo)
Lincoln County High School opened in 1974 when five schools in the county consolidated. Since then, Lincoln had produced two state track champions — David Francis (pole vault, 1996) and Maurice Napier (200-meter dash, 1991).
On Friday at the Class AA state track meet in Lexington, Lincoln doubled that total as senior Lucy Singleton and seventh-grader Abby Bastin both won state championships.
Neither Patriot had the fastest qualifying time but both had dominating wins.
Singleton, a senior, led basically wire to wire to win the 800-meter run in a personal-best 2 minutes, 17.18 seconds. Second place went to Sophia Newsome of Boyd County in 2:19.02 and third was Alexis Dotson of Rockcastle County in 2:19.96.
“Singleton ran a great race,” Lincoln athletics director Tim Estes, a former track coach, said. “She just didn’t let anybody have a chance to catch her.”
Bastin finished eighth in the race in 2:25.07 but nobody couldn’t beat her in the 1,600-meter run. She ran a sizzling 5:09.85, her personal best, to beat Christian Academy teammates Addi Dewey and Kaylee Wilson by two and five seconds.
Bastin, who won middle school state championships in both events a week earlier, ran what Estes thought was a perfect race.
“The first lap was kind of slower than normal for her but she stayed right with the pack,” Estes said. “She took the lead after that and just never let anyone get to her. She just ran a terrific race.”
Singleton and Bastin led Lincoln County to a 10th-place team finish — its highest ever at the state track meet.
Those are the kind of individual accomplishments that always made the state track meet one of my favorite events to cover, especially when all three classes competed on the same days.
