This past weekend, on October 26,  the Bullitt East Cross Country (XC) team traveled to Centerville, Ohio to compete in the Saturday Night Lights run.

This was the first time the team traveled to Ohio to compete in the race and most of the team ran faster than the week before. The course, overall, was flat but it did come with tight turns and a wet course.

This was the second night race for the runners and the first overnight race for the teams. Over the past two years, the runners would stay either at Lexington or Bowling Green. Then after several coaches recommended the Saturday Night Lights meet to Head Coach Lenny Raley, he decided to give it a try.   

Sierra Poppell was the top Bullitt East girl to finish with a second place finish. Poppel finished the 5k race in 19:10. This is considered to be a good time within the XC community, but Poppell still wants to improve her season’s best time. This weekend, Poppell hopes to get a personal record, also known as a PR, and break the school record at the Greater Louisville Classic at E.P. Tom Sawyer Park.

“I felt like the race went really well, and I had a good first mile. The second mile was slower but we have been doing longer efforts to improve our second and third mile. Overall, I think the entire group did really well,” said Poppell.

Isaac Shelton was the top Bullitt East boy to finish with a 12th place finish. Shelton ran his 5k in 17:14. At the beginning of the race, Shelton was in the middle pack but began to pass others as the race continued.Even though Shelton is 32 seconds away from his personal record, he is continuing to take off time each race.

Overall, both teams have to work harder if they are going to make it to the state meet. As of right now the the boys are ranked 6th in the region and the girls don’t have enough runners to qualify as a team. In order for the boys to qualify for the state meet, they would have to place 4th in region.
The team practices every day and has recently started lifting weights. They have about four and a half weeks until regionals. They hope to continue to improve their times as the season continues.