Paducah Tilghman Boys Cross-Country claimed third in the KHSAA Class 2A Boys Cross-Country championship held at Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington on October 28. The Tornado team was seeded seventh coming into the race, but they over-performed on a rugged, muddy course to finish third out of 31 teams.
Individually Liam Black was 20th in the 5K race at 17:39. Jude Crawford was 31st at 17:52. Charlie Wolfram was 37th at 18:00. Corban Williams was 53rd at 18:16. Aiden Forthman was 56th at 18:24. Kolton Houser was 103rd at 19:25, and Jude Williams was 167th at 20:36. Collectively, the Tornado averaged 18:02, behind Covington Catholic at 16:58 and Mason County at 17:52.
Black said that all the times were slow due to the course conditions, but he was proud that the team rose to the challenge to make a top five finish.
“I didn’t have a great race individually,” Black said, “but Coach Wynne told me all season that if I didn’t have a great race that the team would be there to catch me and that’s exactly what happened. They were right there. I’m proud of the times we ran but the thing that I will carry with me is the relationships that we’ve made on the team. We’ve all gotten a lot closer this year.”
“These kids are the real deal,” said PTHS Cross-Country coach Jared Wynne. “They are Paducah Tilghman excellence. It can't be bought, inherited, printed on a poster or passed down, only earned. They knew that they had a chance to do something great and took every advantage of the opportunity. I'm glad I got to see them put the program back on the map!”
Photo caption l to r: Jude Williams, Jude Crawford, Aiden Forthman, Liam Black, Corban Williams, Kolton Houser, Charlie Wolfram