Oct. 2, 2012 — Rowan County cross country runners were surveying the competition as they stood on the starting line of the Berea Invitational Sept. 22.
They concluded a team finish in the top 3 or 4 was possible with good individual performances. The Viking Harriers proceeded to produce the best “team race” to this point in the season, according to Head Coach Roy Wright. Their efforts resulted in a third place finish in the field of 13 schools.
The Vikings were lead by Shelley Deharte, who finished 8th in the field of 90 runners.
Freshman Brandon Marcum had the outstanding race of the meet for the Vikings. This was determined by a unanimous vote of his teammates. Marcum had a new personal record time of 20:06 for the 5000-meter race and placed 38th.
The Vikings finished as the third place team in consecutive meets as they turned in another solid team effort last Saturday in the Greenup County Invitational.
Shelley Deharte lead the Viking Harriers over the relatively flat course and finished in 3rd place. Nick Anderson, an eighth-grader, and Daniel Johnson, a senior, gave the outstanding Viking efforts for the meet.
Both runners had personal record times for the 5-kilometer distance. Johnson placed 8th individual with a time of 18:42 followed by Anderson in 11th place with a clocking of 18:52.
Brandon Marcum placed 18th, while Jon Erni also had a personal record time to finish 20th, Travis Curtis placed 22nd and Josh Gilliam finished 32nd.
“These guys have been working consistently during the past few weeks to improve and their efforts are beginning to manifest in the team finishes and individual times,” Wright said. “Our team time gap, the elapsed time between the first and fifth runner on the team, has narrowed to about two minutes in the last couple of meets. That stat is a very objective measurement of team improvement.”
The Vikings will be competing in the Eastern Kentucky Conference Championship on Wednesday, Oct. 3, starting at 5 p.m. at Clark Field in Ashland.
