Published: November 07, 2009 09:35 pm      

Laynes leads perfect day for Fairview

WESTWOOD — The Fairview Lady Eagles cross country team’s goal for Saturday’s the Region 7 Class A meet was a perfect score.

Mission accomplished.

Fairview, led by Haley Layne and Brooklyn Bowen, took the top five positions to earn a perfect score of 15, on a perfect day for running at the John W. Clark Cross Country Course.

”We achieved it today,” said Fairview coach Becca Stacey of the perfect score. “We got it today and we are very excited. Last year left a bad taste in our mouth because we missed it by one. This year the girls went out, that’s what they wanted and they accomplished it.”

Seventh-grader Haley Layne finished first overall with a time of 21:23, holding off teammate and defending region champion Brooklyn Bowen, a freshman.

Layne’s performance surprised everyone, including Stacey.

“Haley, she blew my mind today,” her coach said. “She came out today and ran a perfect race. She is so young … I’m just really proud of her.”

The other Lady Eagles in the top five were Morgan McIntyre, Maddy Rymer and Audrey Sizemore.

Fairview will be joined by Elliott County, Raceland and Owsley County at next week’s state meet at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington.

Riverside Christian’s Kaitlin Haddix, Pikeville’s Shikha Sachdeva, Paintsville’s Arianna Doderer, Menifee County’s Chelsea Walker and Paintsville’s Reece Trimble all qualified for the state meet as individuals.

On the boys’ side, Elliott County reigned supreme.

The Lions place all five of their runners in the top 12, including three in the top five, led by Daniel Fraley’s third-place finish.

“Last year we lost our four runner right before regions and ended up losing to Shelby Valley,” said Elliott County coach Mark Cantrell. “This year we wanted to kind of redeem ourselves, and they worked hard and did a good job of doing that.”

To go along with Fraley, Cody Nickell and Aaron Stevens also finished in the top five. The Lions also got good performances out of Nick Lewis and Jonathon Sloas.

Dalton Caudill of Bath County took the boy’s individual championship with a time of 17:49. Caudill finished four seconds in front of Shelby Valley’s Chase Ratliffe.

Along with Elliott County, Shelby Valley, Owsley County and Bath County all earned trips to the state meet.

The individual qualifiers for the boys’ meet were Fairview’s Tyler Brown, Wolfe County’s Lowell O’Hair, Buckhorn’s Jimmy Noble, Cordia’s Nathaniel Everage and Charlie Brand of Wolfe County.