Sunday, September 12, 1999
Highlands' runners win twice
BY RAY SCHAEFER
Enquirer contributor
CRESTVIEW HILLS — A girls cross country team can win a meet when its second runner loses a shoe, and a boys team can win though its top runner sometimes skips races to play soccer.
Highlands' girls and boys teams pulled off such feats at Saturday's 32nd annual Covington Catholic Invitational meet at Thomas More College. The Bluebird girls took the Class AA title over Fleming County, 29-71, and the boys did it to Fleming County again, 51-71.
The sweep was the first time a boys and girls teams took the title since Frankfort Western Hills did it in 1997.
“You can never work too hard,” Highlands senior Colin Muehlenkamp said. “We're at this high level right now. We've got to encourage everyone to pack together and finish as high as possible.”
The Highlands girls won CovCath for the second straight year. Senior Cameron Nienaber finished second, but it was eighth-grader Ashley Jones who turned in the strongest performance — she dropped to last place when junior teammate Kelly Owens stepped on her foot and caused the shoe to come off, but she finished fourth.
Jones didn't think the mishap was a big deal.
“I stopped, put it on and hustled to get back up front,” she said.
Three other Bluebird girls, juniors Andrea Reitano, Owens and Jessie Barth, finished sixth, eighth and ninth.
Highlands also swept the boys and girls titles at Grant County on Sept. 4. Muehlenkamp missed that meet because he was playing midfield for the soccer team, but Saturday he finished second to West Jessamine's Matt Braun.
Senior Jay Heilman was the next Bluebird in at No. 11, sophomore Justin Clark was 13th and junior Mike Frede was 17th.
Two other Northern Kentucky schools won team titles. Bishop Brossart, ranked first in the state in Class A boys, easily defeated St. Henry for the CovCath Class A title, 35-68, and Notre Dame edged Pulaski County, 35-37, in girls Class AAA.
Brossart won its third consecutive CovCath title by placing four runners in the top 10 — senior Jarrod Schmidt finished third, followed by seniors Randy Steffen and Sean McCauley in fourth and fifth and senior Marc Teismann in seventh.
“We're getting more consistency as the season goes along,” Brossart coach Ray Kues said.
Notre Dame was equally as consistent Saturday. Sophomore Meghan Crowe was second to five-time state AAA champion Rachel Sanford of Pulaski County, and seniors Stephanie Little, Katie Keller and Beth Wendt were fourth, eighth and 10th.
Perhaps the biggest upset of the day came in Class A girls, where Oldenburg (Ind.) Academy stunned two-time defending state Class A champion St. Henry, 60-64.
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