ALC Cross Country Participates in Prestigious 2022 Louisville Classic
Louisville, KY: The women's and men's cross-country teams, coached by Brittany Buttrey-Owens, traveled to Louisville to compete in one of the country's largest and most prestigious meets, the Louisville Classic. This was the fifth consecutive year an ALC team had competed in this race.
There were actually three separate college meets, broken down by division, level, and time. To show how renowned this event is, over 1,100 ladies and 1,100 male runners attended. ALC's group, the "College Blue" division, was comprised of runners from various levels of NCAA, NAIA, and NCCAA squads, with a total of 422 women and 427 men toeing the starting line for the 5K (3.1 mile) women's race and 8K (5 mile) men's race.
Not only were the numbers very impressive, but so was the quality of the competition. Alice Lloyd women's competitors faced 49 different colleges while the men's competitors faced 48 different squads.
The course was largely flat terrain with only a small slope in places, and was made for good runners. Louisville frequently hosts the NCAA DI National Cross-Country Championship, so obviously, the Eagle runners were motivated to see how they fared against some of the finest runners from across the country, from all different levels, on a great course.
On the day, the ladies were led once again by Sara Cecil, who crossed the finish line in 21:38, good for 373rd position. Completing the team were Kaitlynn Ratliff (23:13), Abbey Hicks (23:32), and Olivia Innskeep (24:56). All gave a great effort.
In the men's event, Micah Blankenship paced the team in a time of 30:25, and finished in 397th position. He was followed by Collin Ramey (31:39), Koby Proffitt (33:19), Dakota Owens (34:21), and Gerald Estep (37:48). The club would finish 45th and left everything on the course.
The squad will next compete in the difficult Royals Challenge in Charlotte (NC) on Friday, October 7th.