NEW MARKET — Southmont’s Faith Allen raced to a third-place finish at the Mountie ‘Leap Into September’ Invite on Tuesday night.
The junior paced the Mounties with a time of 21:09 in the five-team meet that included Sagamore Conference schools Frankfort, Lebanon, and Western Boone.
In the girls’ race Western Boone (45) edged Lebanon (48) led by Audrey Knoper’s winning time of 19:58. Southmont placed fifth with 108.
The Tigers (33) ran to first in the boys’ race, edging Frankfort (33). The Hot Dogs’ Josue Ventura Bautista won with a time of 18:17. The Mounties placed fourth.
Mason Cass led Southmont’s boys’ with a 17th finish in 19:26.
“It was nice to have a cooler meet and I think the kids were excited to run the course tonight,” Southmont coach Shelley Allen said. “It was good to get out and run it and work toward county.”
Also on the boys’ side, Aaron Evans placed 16th in 20:52 and Hunter Alesi 17th in 20:57. Skyler Wood was 24th in 22:21, Brett Keller 27th in 22:43 and Clay Allen 28th in 23:08.
On the girls’ side, Heaven Smith was 23rd in 26:17, Grace Simpson 26th in 27:07 and Rachel Rhoads 27th in 27:35. Tiffany Dittmer placed 35th in 30:58, Tomo Greiner 36th in 31:31 and Kylee Reeves 40th in 32:41.
“I’ve seen everybody hitting better times than they did last year,” Allen said. “And my freshmen are hitting better times at every meet.”
The Mounties will compete once more on their home course — which is one of the toughest they’ll run all season — at the Montgomery County meet on Sep. 16 as they start to prepare for the next phase of the season.
“I train the kids to peak at the end of the season,” Allen added. “So we typically see slower times at the beginning and then they drop as the weeks go on. I expect to continue to see time drops and everybody working harder and doing better.”
