Youth has been a positive for Tigers

Oct. 5—In any sport, inexperience can always be a tough hurdle to clear. When it comes to his cross country teams, Shady Spring coach Eric Lawson views it from a positive lens.

The Tigers lost two key runners from last year's teams — Charlotte McGinnis on the girls side and Jaedan Holstein for the boys. Both are now running at Concord.

That leaves the Tigers with no seniors. But that's OK by Lawson. What they lack in experience has been made up for with enthusiasm.

"Our youth has definitely played to our advantage so far," he said. "They're eager to get out. They work hard. They're just antsy and they're really hungry during meet time. They're ready to go.

"They've had a little bit of a learning curve, but they're starting to figure it out. It's really starting to take off with the girls."

There is youth on the girls team but it is not totally devoid of experience.

Sophomore Gwinn McGinnis has turned it on with top 10 finishes.

"Gwynn has really taken off," Lawson said. "She's had a good couple of weeks."

Juniors Abby Honaker and Journey Wisthoff have been key pieces so far.

"They're just tough as nails, all around," Lawson said.

Freshman Bre Crouse started the year with a foot injury suffered during gymnastics but has started to get past that.

"She's coming along as of late," Lawson said. "She's stepping it up into what we know Bre Crouse is. That's really helped us a lot."

The same theme holds true for the boys.

"They're starting to see big gains, too," Lawson said. "They're super young. It's coming along. Even the upperclassmen we have don't have a ton of experience, but they're competitors and they're really putting it together here recently."

Leading the way has been junior Eli Jordan, who came back after sitting out his sophomore year.

"He was tough his ninth-grade year, took a year off and is back to being a leader," Lawson said.

Freshman Logan Malott came to high school with big credentials.

"That was a name that everybody was familiar with from middle school," Lawson said. "He's really figuring things out, how to run that 5K and how to race that 5K smart. He's starting to gain a lot of ground."

Lawson said he has been impressed with junior Vaughn York of late.

"He started the season really unsure of himself, really sold himself short," Lawson said. "He's coming along and being competitive and kind of being a second leader to Eli. It's just really, really nice."

Lawson said freshmen Reid Radford and Josh Smith, in addition to Malott, have been tough all year and have shown promise toward the future.

"We're putting hay in the barn," Lawson said. "We're going to be ready come regional time."

That comes Oct. 19 and the Tigers will host the Class AA Region 3 meet at Little Beaver State Park.

Before that, however, the Shady Spring Invitational is set for this Saturday. The boys will race at 11:30 a.m., followed by the girls at 12:15 p.m.

Middle school races will start the day, the girls at 9 a.m. and boys at 9:30 a.m.

The meet will provide a mix of several local teams and teams not from the area.

"It's going to be a real fun meet to watch," Lawson said. "Really competitive. It's going to be fun for sure. We're looking at over a hundred middle school boys and around a hundred middle school girls, and then probably 75 high school boys and high school girls. There's plenty of local talent to come see, there's plenty of out-of-town talent to come duke it out with us. It's going to be really fun."

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