The Richmond Register

Sports

August 21, 2012

CROSS COUNTRY: Central aiming high this season

By Tim Mandell Register Sports Writer

RICHMOND — Last year, the Madison Central girls cross country team fielded a roster that included three middle school athletes and no seniors.

Despite having a young squad the Lady Indians placed second at the Class 3A, Region 7 meet, advancing to state, where they finished 20th.

Two of Central’s top four runners at the state meet were eighth-graders and one was a freshman.

With all seven runners back this season, as well as a handful of other talented young runners, the Lady Indians have high expectations for the 2012 season.

“We feel very confident bringing everybody back,” Central coach Robert LaDeur said. “They’ve all gotten a little bit better. Some have gotten better than they were last year already, so we’re very confident.”

During the first part of the summer runners spent six weeks working on long runs, running anywhere from 30 to 40 miles per week.

Over the past six weeks workouts have been split between three days each week of distance runs and three days of speed work.

On Wednesday athletes ran six miles around the course at B. Michael Caudill Middle School.

As an eighth-grader last year, Ivanna Sabino led the Lady Indians at the region meet, placing third in 20:51.53.

At state she had the team’s second fastest time, finishing 46th in 20:58.37.

Not bad for someone running cross country for the first time.

“It was new to me, because it was my first year running,” Sabino said. “In track I did all right, but I wasn’t expecting to excel in cross country. This year I know about the sport more and I understand what I need to do to get better.”

Another young runner, Anna Marshall, was eighth last year at the region meet in 21:23.66 and 106th at state in 22:02.87.

Marshall is a sophomore this year.

Anna Knox, a junior this year, was 22nd at last year’s region meet in 24:02.26 and 187th at state in 23:22.41.

Central’s top runner and captain is senior Gabriella Sabino.

Sabino, who in the spring was seventh in the 800 at the Class 3A state track meet and 22nd in the 1,600, ran with an injury in last year’s cross country region meet, but still managed to finish 12th in 21:55.55.

One week later at state she was healthy and ran a personal best 20:49.63 to finish a team-best 39th.

“We’re excited, we have a lot of younger people coming in, we have a lot more energy and all our times our improving and everyone seems enthusiastic,” Gabriella Sabino said. “We’ve really bonded. The team is closer, we trust each other and we’re going to carry each other through racing and push each other in practice.”

Three athletes are splitting time between cross country and soccer.

Senior Sarah Franklin was 15th at the region meet in 22:05.94 and 173rd at state in 23:05.32.

Franklin starts for the Central varsity, where last year she had eight goals and six assists.

Ninth-grader Julia Manning was 21st at the region meet as an eighth-grader, posting a time of 22:33.93.

At state she was 169th in 22:58.15.

Melanie Manning, a ninth-grader, was 33rd last year at the region meet in 24:02.26 and 210th at state in 24:25.63.

The Manning sisters are seeing time on the Central JV soccer team.

In addition to the returning team members, sophomore Kimberly Mosher and freshman Emily Jones have also been running well for the Lady Indians during the preseason, which included running as a team on Aug. 11 at A Midsummer Night’s Run in Lexington.

LaDeur said that once school gets going he expects four or five more runners to join the team.

Central begins the cross country season on Aug. 30 at the Chick-Fil-A Invitational at Asbury University.

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