Todd County Central is making strides in building its running programs.
The school has seen several athletes qualify and even medal at the state track and field meet in the past few seasons but cross country has struggled with numbers and building a consistent program.
However, coach Richard Martin and newly named track and field coach Kristin Dent have been working to recruit runners to field a full cross country team.
The Rebels fielded a full team at Saturday’s Christian County Season Opener in Hopkinsville, placing 12th.
Freshman Ethan Johnson was the first Rebel across the finish line in 57th place with a time of 22:37 over the 3.1-mile course.
Eighth grader Thatcher Moore was 70th in 23:30 followed by freshman Klayton Welborne in 77th place in 23:56.
Eighth grader Liam Groves came in 96th place in 25:15 with freshman Kaidan Kutch 98th in 25:25.
University Heights Academy’s Cole Glover won the race in 17:20.
The Rebels totaled 318 points to finish in 12th place. The top five runners for Todd Central were separated by just two minutes, 47 seconds – the third smallest margin in the race.
Perhaps the most impressive part about Saturday’s race was the improvement made by the team in just a week. Todd Central opened the season last week at the Clarksville High Invitational.
Groves improved his time by three minutes and 19 seconds over last week with Welborne knocking 2:08 off his time and Moore subtracting 1:26.
