Logan County High School is hosting the Class 2A Region 1 cross country meet on Saturday. The girls will run the final of six races on the day at 12:45.
Seven schools have registered full teams for the region meet, meaning the top four teams will advance to the state meet on Nov. 1 in Lexington. The next five individual finishers not on those four teams will also qualify.
Most teams in western Kentucky got a chance to run the Logan County course during the Cougar region preview race on Sept. 27.
For the schools that did not run in the region preview, we used the Milesplit database and took the average time of two comparable courses to use for a projected region time.
However, there are other factors at play when trying to chart projected region times. One is the entry of runners who primarily ran in middle school races in the season and didn’t compete at the varsity level.
Another is the entry of multi-sport athletes who can run in the region race now that their other season has concluded. The KHSAA no longer has a race minimum requirement.
THE FAVORITES
Calloway County’s Vayla Carlisle is the defending champion but is the third seed behind Webster County teammates Mayci Moore and Paisley Stone.
Carlisle, Reese Settle, and Ainsley Smith have given Calloway County the last five region champions.
Hopkinsville’s Lauren Mayes has three invitational wins – two on hilly courses similar to Logan County – and first-year Trigg County runner Veyda Grinols also has strong top-five aspirations.
If any of them have an off day, Calloway County’s Sadie Lilly and Union County’s Isabella Graham could slip into the top five.
TEAM PREDICTIONS
Calloway County has won five straight region titles, but only projects to be five points better than Webster County. The Lady Trojans are likely to put three runners in the top 10, but Calloway’s fourth and fifth runners track ahead of Webster’s fifth runner.
Trigg County could crash the party and win its first region title since 2019 with the emergence of Grinols and the three Quinteros sisters. They project seven points behind Calloway.
Hopkinsville and Union County are expected to challenge for the fourth and final qualifying spot.
