Mercer County boys take CKC title on rainy night
Published 11:25 pm Friday, May 5, 2017
Teams in the Central Kentucky Conference flocked to Admiral Stadium Friday for one final tune-up meet before regions.
Mercer County boys cruised to the title, winning by more than 50 points over second-place Woodford County. Mercer girls placed third behind Rockcastle County and East Jessamine.
Boyle County did not attend the meet because of the weather and a potential injury risk.
Mercer coach Terry Yeast felt those concerns as well, but went ahead and participated after some consultation.
“I was nervous because of the weather,” he said. “But what I did, I thought I’d go to some folks with experience. I called a couple hall of fame coaches, couple of my buddies who coach and asked their opinion. One said, you never know what the weather may be for region. Another said to reiterate the importance of staying warm and stretching, then they felt like I’d be OK. I said that to my kids over and over, and I think we got out of there in pretty good shape.”
Mercer girls hit the 100-point threshold, something Yeast was very proud to see.
“Rock is very impressive and I knew that they would be,” he said. “East Jessamine is doing an exceptional job. The girls, they fit right there. I figured we would be in the top three. It came down to the 4×400 and East Jessamine pulled out that win and that made the difference in second and third. But I thought they did an outstanding job. They scored 100 points. In that weather, I think 100 points for the girls is exceptional.
“With all the struggles we had with the weather, overall, I felt like they fought through it,” he said. “I was proud of everybody’s effort. A day like that, you’re not going to get your best times or distances, but we still stayed where we should have.”
Aaron Johnson won two individual awards at the meet.
“Aaron had his typical meet,” Yeast said. “He definitely did not like the cold weather, but he scored 30 points for us and was the high point scorer and he got the outstanding performance award for the 100 hurdles.”
Area results from Friday’s meet will be in Monday’s newspaper.
Follow Matt Overing on Twitter @MOvering