LouisvilleCatholicSports.com

Assumption harriers dominate state in 2011

LouisvilleCatholicSports.com chronicles the 2011-2012 sports year in review. We will bring you every sport, every season, every team’s results in a capsule each weekday until we're finished. From Cross-Country to Softball and Baseball and all sports in between, here’s what happened in 2011-2012 on the Louisville Catholic sports scene.

From Class 1A to Class 3A and all stops in between, the local Catholic girls Cross Country teams enjoyed plenty of success. With Assumption and Sacred Heart Academy finishing 1-2 in the Class 3A competition, to Presentation’s 4^th place finish in Class 2A, and a bunch of very talented underclassmen dotting the rosters throughout these teams, these girls have what it takes for an even better season in 2012.

Here’s how their seasons finished:

Class 1A – Holy Cross: 12^th place

The Holy Cross Cougars finished a respectable 12^th overall as a team, but there’s plenty to look forward to in 2012. With a four-some of freshman leading this team, the future only looks brighter for the Cougars CC program.

The leader of this pack of Cougars’ freshmen is Karly Gawarecki, who earned 6^th place overall with a time of 19:55 in the 5K run, less than a minute behind the state championship time.

The rest of the freshmen group include Emily Thomson (100^th place, 23:52), Ashby Eggers (106^th, 24:10) and Ally Brutscher (108^th, 24:17) with sophomore Jenna Johnston finishing 42^nd overall in a time of 22:06.

Class 2A – Presentation Academy: 4^th place; Mercy Academy

While Mercy Academy fielded only two runners in the state finals, Presentation Academy took their full complement of harriers and finished 4^th in the Class 2A state cross-country meet.

The Toppers were paced by sophomore Emily Flaherty, who’s 21:01 clocking was good enough to finish 17^th overall. Freshman Courtney Carrico was just behind Flaherty and finished 20^th with a 21:05 time for the 5K run. Senior Casey Richardson finished 35^th in 21:33 and senior Kayla Payne finished 39^th in 21:37. Rounding out the team were two freshmen, Caroline Gosser (125^th, 23:44) and Danielle Finzer (151^st, 24:15).

For the Mercy Academy Jaguars, strong performances were put forth by the sophomore duo of Abby Wicke (18^th overall, 21:03) and Tristen Senn (36^th, 21:33).

Class 3A – Assumption: State Champions; Sacred Heart Academy: State runners-up

These two rivals staged a heated battle for the top spot in the state in Cross Country, but the Assumption Rockets pulled away on the strength of their talented quintet of sophomore runners. This Assumption team is poised to continue their run of strong performances in both Cross Country and Track & Field.

Coach Barry Hayworth's Rockets practically lapped the field with their top five runners finishing in 2^nd, 4^th, 7^th, 8^th and 13^th overall. Their sixth and seventh runners finished 14^th and 17^th in this dominant performance at the state championship meet.

Led by Bailey Davis’ second place overall finish in 19:02, the Rockets’ average time of 19:27 was 1:11 faster than the average team time of state runners-up Sacred Heart.

Sophomre Katherine Receveur finished fourth in a time of 19:06. Another sophomore, Emily Bean earned seventh place in 19:34, just ahead of senior Caroline McCaslin’s 19:35 finish. Sophomore Kenzly Defler was 13^th (19:57) and sophomore Kate Crawford was 14^th (19:59). Senior Amanda Vokoun finished 17^th with a time of 20:17.

Davis, Receveur, Bean and McCaslin were all earned first team All State honors by the Kentucky Track and Cross Country Coaches Association in Class 3A, while Crawford, Defler and Vokoun were named to the second team All State.

For Sacred Heart Academy, their top five runners were bunched between 19^th and 51^st places earning them 2^nd place overall. Individual performances for the Valkyries include three girls finishing back-to-back-to-back with senior Jacklyn Puopolo (19^th, 20:21.24), sophomore Parker Shay finished 20^th (20:21.88), and freshman Samantha Simms finishing 21^st (20:22). Sophomore Betsy Daly earned 43^rd place with a time of 20:53 and freshman Maggie Allen took 55^th place in 21:11.