(by Don Meador)
The 2021 cross country season for Allen County-Scottsville ended on Friday, October 29, with eight AC-SH student athletes running in the Class 2A state championship meet in Paris. At the end of the day, Ally Anderson and Tyler Stanger led the way for the Patriots.
Anderson capped her first year with the cross country program with a time of 21:40.07 to place 49th in the 219-runner field. Broken down by grade, Anderson---who qualified as an individual---was the eighth fastest freshman in the field.
As has been the case all season, Stanger led the way for the Patriot runners---a meet qualifier as a team for the first time in 13 years. Stanger posted a time of 18:33.55 to place 64th among the 243 runners in the meet. His final placement equaled his performance last year but his time improved by approximately five seconds. He was the 18th quickest sophomore this year. Stranger finished 16th as an eighth-grader in 2019 (17:14.28).
Freshman Alex Stamps was the second highest finisher among Patriot runners after completing the 5K course in 19:33.85. His time was a 31-second improvement over his regional championship mark. Junior Aaron Shain finished with a time of 20:08.56. Like Andrson, Shain ran cross country for the first time this season.
Additional runners and their times included freshman Kash Taylor (20.09.56), eighth-grader Grant Morgan (20:38.55), eighth-grader Hunter Constant (22:44.55), and freshman Houston Porter (24:47.15).
Without a senior on the squad, the Patriots are expected to continue to rise among Class 2A teams. The same holds true for the Lady Patrios looking ahead to 2022.