As the region meet, which determines which teams qualify for the year’s state championship meet, draws closer, LCHS Cross Country head coach Logan Turner and his team took part in their final tune up race on Saturday at the Mountain Invitational at Unicoi State Park.
Led by Ben Sherrill with a time of 18:08 and Wyatt Windham just eight seconds behind him finishing at 18:16 for the boys and Abbie Hilchie’s time of 22:20 on the girls side, the Indians raced to an eighth place finish on the boys side and a 10th place finish by the girls.
All in all, Turner feels his team is capable of more when it comes to the region meet.
“We didn’t perform at the level that we wanted to,” Turner said, “but it gave us an opportunity to see where we stand with the rest of the region. It also gave us some insight as to how we need to approach these last few weeks in regard to training.”
All season long, the team’s goal has been to not only make state, but to shock the region in the process.
“We don’t want to just get fourth in the region in order to make it to state,” he said. “We want to make some noise in our region and then worry about state. We have the ability and I have no doubt our kids will perform to the best of their abilities when we go to Unicoi in the last week of the month.”
The team will head back to Unicoi State Park for the Region Meet on Thursday, Oct. 28.