Galatia runners fall short of qualifying for state

BENTON - The Galatia High School girls' cross-country team fell short of qualifying for the state meet when competing at the Benton Sectional this past Saturday morning.

Senior Bethany Toler had the fastest time for the Bearcats at 23 minutes, 1 second. That placed her 115th overall. The other four runners are all freshmen, including Natalie Triplett (141st place at 25:27); Abby Kuczynski (143rd at 25:50), Taryn McClusky (148th at 27:55) and Brittyn Mattingly (150th at 29:13).

"Where we placed doesn't look all that impressive, but we were competing against (much larger) schools like Nashville, Breese Mater Dei, Benton, Pinckneyville and Du Quoin," said Galatia head coach Heather Lynch. "Those are schools that have had cross-country programs for years. This was only our second year as a program. For that reason, I am very proud of these girls. They worked hard."

Lynch added that she hates to lose her one senior - Toler - but is excited about the team's future with so many underclassmen competing at the varsity level.