The school bus that took Dawson Springs to the Class 1A State Cross Country Meet over the weekend returned home a little heavier. On board was a third-place trophy — the school’s first piece of hardware from a state meet in program history.
The Panthers put three runners in the top 28 positions and finished with 181 points, which was eight points behind state runner-up St. Henry and six ahead of fourth-place Bethlehem. Villa Madonna won the state title with 108 points.
The Panthers were the only public school in the top seven places in the Class 1A meet.
Region champion Easton Bourland continued his strong running at the end of the season and got a podium finish as he crossed the finish line at the Kentucky Horse Park in ninth place. He ran a time of 16:50 over the 3.1 mile course, just missing a new personal best time by 15 seconds.
It was quite a bump for the sophomore, who finished in 70th place last year. Bourland has run the four quickest times in school history.
Deacon Dever knocked over a minute off of last year’s state meet time and finished in 19th place in a time of 17:37.
Montgomery Johnston came in 28th place in 18 minutes flat. Running in his fourth state meet, Sean Stallins finished in 70th place in 18:56 and Rex Blue was 91st in 19:23.
Preston Drennan finished in 140th place. He crossed the line in 20:16 and Riley Bunton was 216th in a time of 22:57.
The Panthers had put together three previous top-10 finishes at the state meet but Saturday was the first time their finish resulted in a trophy.
The Kentucky High School Athletic Association gives team trophies to the first four teams in the standings. Dawson Springs qualified for the state meet with a school record sixth consecutive region title last week.
