By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
The Beechwood girls cross country team is taking a well deserved break this weekend after winning the first four invitational meets on its schedule with sophomore Lily Parke as the Tigers’ front-runner.
After opening the season with a victory in the Trimble County Backwoods meet, the Tigers claimed championship trophies in the Grant County Invitational, Ryle Invitational and Mason (Ohio) Invitational the next three weekends.
In each of those meets, the second-place team was from a school with a much higher enrollment than Beechwood, winner of last year’s Kentucky Class 1A state championship meet.
At the Mason Invitational last week, Beechwood’s winning score was 35 points and Scott, a Class 3A team, placed a distant second with 88 points. Scott senior Maddie Strong won the race in 19:05 and Parke finished second at 19:30.
The next five Beechwood runners across the finish line were junior Charli Gerrein (sixth), senior Catie Hazzard (eighth), sophomore Nora Wilke (ninth), junior Isabel Ginter (10th) and junior Annie Harris (12th).
In their first three invitational meets, Parke placed first, second and second overall to lead her team’s strong pack attack. The Tigers’ winning margins in the four meets were 14, 21, 28 and 53 points.
Last November, Beechwood won its first Class 1A state championship in girls cross country under coach Tricia Sturgeon. Several runners on that team also helped the Tigers win the Class 1A girls state track meet in June. Parke and Hazzard were on the winning 4×400 relay team. Two of the second-place finishers were Parke in the 1600 run and Wilke in the 3200 run.
Cooper girls enter region golf tournament ranked second in state
The Cooper girls golf team is second in statewide point standings going into the Region 7 tournament that’s set for Tuesday at Kenton County Golf Course. The boys tournament will be Monday at Boone Links.
Last season, Cooper won the girls region title for the third straight year and placed third in the state tournament. The Jaguars have established themselves as top contenders once again this year by winning six tournaments, including the Northern Kentucky Athletic Conference Division I title on Tuesday.
Cooper has accumulated 680 points competing in 13 events. The top team is Louisville Sacred Heart with 700 points in 12 events.
The top three scorers in the conference tournament were Cooper golfers Eva Maley, Reagan Ramage and Kendall Brissey. They were also the top three finishers in last year’s region tournament with Ramage taking medalist honors.
In this week’s statewide individual point standings, Ramage is third, Maley is fifth and Brissey is sixth. After the region and state tournaments are completed, the final point standings will be used to determine Miss Kentucky Golf and the girls all-state teams.
St. Henry was 10th in this week’s boys golf team standings. The highest local golfer in the boys individual standings was Caleb Eaglin of Newport Central Catholic at No. 16.
Two girls soccer teams advance to All “A” Classic state tournament
Walton-Verona and St. Henry will be among the eight girls soccer teams competing in the All “A” Classic state championship tournament Sept. 23-24 after winning sectional playoff matches this week.
St. Henry defeated Brossart, 4-1, on Monday and Walton-Verona edged Louisville Brown 1-0, on Wednesday to advance in the small-school playoffs. They will both play quarterfinal games at 11 a.m. Friday, Sept 23, according to the bracket posted on the allaclassic.org website.
The only local team in the All “A” Classic boys state tournament will be the winner of the Newport Central Catholic at Brossart sectional game at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. Louisville Collegiate knocked off Walton-Verona, 9-0, in one of the other boys sectional games on Wednesday.
The All “A” Classic state volleyball tournament will be played this weekend at Eastern Kentucky University with St. Henry, Brossart and Walton-Verona among the 16 region champions in the field.