Boyle County sweeps region track and field meet
Published 9:00 am Saturday, May 12, 2018
HARRODSBURG — Boyle County is on to the next one.
The 2018 season started with “The Next One” motto, and now there’s just one left.
Boyle County swept the Class 2A Region 5 track and field meet Friday in Mercer County, winning by more than 35 points on the boys and girls side.
It’s the eighth-straight region title for Boyle girls and first for Boyle boys since 2015.
“It’s big. It’s a little overwhelming, just for the fact that we didn’t just win. We won with good times and good performances, which was awesome,” Boyle head coach Brent Wagner said. “There’s a couple of relays that we knew we would win by a significant amount, but they didn’t say ‘we’re just going to do enough to win.’ They went out and tried to send a message throughout the state. We jumped up big in several events. We didn’t do just enough, we did our jobs to the best of our abilities. When you give 1,000 percent, this is what happens.”
Wagner said this sets his team up well for state, but nothing is a given.
“It sets you up, prepares you to have a good day at state,” he said. “It doesn’t guarantee anything but we’re hungry. We’ll get after it … I can’t wait to see how we’ll show up in a week. We’re pumped for the opportunity, but we’ve got to show up Monday and get to work. Because our goal is to win the state.”
Mercer County girls placed second and the Mercer boys — who had won the previous two region titles — placed third.
It was a huge day on the track for the Lady Titans, who set a handful of school records.
“The girls had six school records, the boys had one,” head coach Terry Yeast said. “I think we’re peaking at the right time. The points worked out, I could kind of figure out what would happen coming in. I was concerned about Rockcastle for second place, we were two-point favorites over them and we beat them by 20 something. I was excited about that. We’re where we want to be. The goal was to get everybody there on both sides, and then just battle it out next week.”
The “peak” is next week at the University of Kentucky, and both the Rebels and Titans will be in contention for hardware.
“As we start training in December, we kind of set the regiment to peak at region,” Yeast said. “We feel like if we peak at region, we can hold it for a week. This shows that it’s worked out. Been doing this a little while, we tweak a few things as we go through the season but it’s coming together … They have responded. So many kids really just gave it their all today.”