By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Simon Kenton teammates Kyle Mastin and Sophia DeLisio will receive Runner of the Year awards at the Northern Kentucky Cross Country Coaches Association postseason banquet on Wednesday at St. Henry High School.
Kyle Mastin
Sophia DeLisio
Mastin was voted the top boys’ runner this season after recording the fastest time among all local qualifiers at the state meet, finishing 16th in the Class AAA race in 16 minutes 26 seconds. The junior also won the Class AAA regional meet in 17:11 and posted the fastest time (16:30) in the Northern Kentucky Athletic Conference Championships.
DeLisio was the overall winner in the girls’ conference championships with a time of 19:39. After finishing ninth in the Class AAA regional meet, the sophomore had the second-best time (19:38) of all local runners in the girls’ state meet, placing 14th in the Class AAA race.
Dave Schuh of Brossart was voted the local Coach of the Year in girls’ cross country. His team placed second in the Class A regional meet and fourth in the state meet behind perennial power St. Henry.
Tom Arnold of Covington Catholic and Eric Vanlandingham of Cooper were named e Co-Coaches of the Year in boys’ cross country. Cooper won the Class AAA regional meet with a near perfect score of 25. One week later, CovCath placed sixth in the Class AAA state meet, three spots ahead of Cooper.
Here are the Northern Kentucky all-region teams selected by local coaches:
FIRST-TEAM ALL-REGION
GIRLS – Sophia Delisio (Simon Kenton), Karsen Hunter (Highlands), Abby Jones (NewCath), Maggie Schroeder (Highlands), Malia Heck (St. Henry), Ashlyn Vanlandingham (Conner), Elly Piatt (Notre Dame), Sidney Reagor (Campbell County), Caroline Frye (Conner), Meredith Hiles (Simon Kenton).
BOYS – Kyle Mastin (Simon Kenton), Cody Chism (Brossart), Ethan Snyder (St. Henry), Arthur Sonzogni (Cooper), Owen Piatt (CovCath), Ethan Fraser (Scott), Michael Hoffman (Cooper), John Komaromy-Hiller (Villa Madonna), Zack Werner (Villa Madonna), Nathan Byrd (Cooper).
SECOND-TEAM ALL-REGION
GIRLS – Megan Kelter (Cooper), McKenzie Lachmann (Simon Kenton), Kendall Schuler (Brossart), Brianna Collins (Highlands), Maria Klocke (Brossart), Alissa Campbell (Highlands), Greta Noble (Highlands), Allie Weidinger (Notre Dame), Caileigh Waters (Walton-Verona), Haley Holbrook (Beechwood).
BOYS – Andrew Perry (Dixie Heights), Zack Hemsath (CovCath), Tim Stidham (Cooper), Benjamin Spratt (Grant County), Zach Armour (Cooper), Andrew Schultz (Walton-Verona), Nick Eten (CovCath), Will Akin (CovCath), Darrell Corn (Ludlow), Josh Gray (St. Henry).
St. Elizabeth joining sponsors of benefit basketball games
St. Elizabeth HealthCare has become the signature sponsor for the annual Bluegrass-Buckeye Charity Classic boys’ basketball games that will be played at two sites in January.
Since its inception in 2001, the classic has raised more than $208,000 for local charities in Kentucky and Ohio. St. Elizabeth and other local sponsors make it possible for the event to provide donations each year.
“We are very excited to have St. Elizabeth join our team for this worthwhile event,” said Bob Griffin, president of the classic’s board of directors. “We try to show young athletes the importance of giving back to the community. St. Elizabeth does that every day as the largest health care facility in Northern Kentucky and this is one more way to provide help for our neighbors who need it.”
Six of the top 10 teams in the Northern Kentucky preseason coaches poll will play games in the St. Elizabeth HealthCare Bluegrass-Buckeye Charity Classic on Friday, Jan. 13 at BB&T Arena. The matchups are: Holmes vs. Cooper at 5:30 p.m., Scott vs. Dixie Heights at 7 p.m. and Covington Catholic vs. Newport Central Catholic at 8:30 p.m.
On Tuesday, Jan. 17, a portion of the ticket sales for the Oak Hills at Elder game in Cincinnati will also go to the classic.
The money raised by the four games will be donated to the Ruth Lyon’s Children’s Fund, Neediest Kids of All and Chicks & Chucks, a breast cancer support group. Last year, the classic raised $25,000 that was distributed to those three charities.
The other corporate sponsors for this year’s event are Griffin Elite Sports & Wellness, Darling Ingredients, Bilz Insurance, The Enquirer and Kelsey Chevrolet. Advance tickets for the Jan. 13 games at BB&T Arena will soon be available at the six participating schools and on the BB&T Arena website.
Ludlow football coach stepping down after nine seasons
Rick Hornsby will be retiring as teacher and head football coach at Ludlow High School at the end of this academic year.
Hornsby has been in charge of the Panthers football program for the last nine seasons, compiling a 35-65 record overall and 2-8 record in Class 1A playoff games with the small-school team.
“All the kids worked extremely hard and they always did what we asked,” Hornsby said. “One of the proudest things (as coach) is not the win and losses, but how hard they played for us. That’s all I can ask for and they played hard.”
With its annual enrollment around 400 students in the top four grades, Ludlow usually has a limited number of players on the varsity football roster and several of them are freshmen. The Panthers were able to post a 6-5 record in both the 2014 and 2015 seasons, but the roster dwindled this year and the record slipped to 3-8.
Hornsby said he started out with 25 players and several of them were sidelined by injuries or academic ineligibility during the course of the season.
“It just snowballed and there wasn’t anything we could do about it,” he said. “We lost four games this year (on key plays) with under two minutes left and we were leading in three of them. So we could’ve easily been 7-4 instead of 3-8.”
There were only four seniors on the Ludlow roster this season so most of the starters will be returning next year. Hornsby said he would like to see one of his assistants follow him as head coach.
