Lincoln’s Crosby sweeps shot put, discus titles at state meet
Published 3:27 pm Wednesday, June 5, 2024
Sisters Zyanya, left, and Germani Crosby pose with their medals Friday at the KHSAA State Track and Field Championships. Germani Crosby won the girls shot put and discus competitions; Zyanya Crosby placed fifth in both events. Photo by Mike Marsee
Germani Crosby of Lincoln County attempts a throw in the girls shot put as her sister Zyanya looks on Friday at the KHSAA State Track and Field Championships. Crosby won her third consecutive state title in the shot put. Photo by Mike Marsee
Cash Baird of Lincoln County makes an attempt in the boys high jump Friday at the KHSAA State Track and Field Championships. Baird finished sixth to cap his first season in track and field. Photo by Mike Marsee
Kinsley Reed, left, takes a handoff from Lincoln County teammate Shelby Smith for the third leg of the girls 800-meter relay Friday at the KHSAA State Track and Field Championships. The Lincoln team finished 18th. Photo by Mike Marsee
Zyanya Crosby of Lincoln County attempts a throw in the girls shot put Friday at the KHSAA State Track and Field Championships. Crosby finished fifth in the event. Photo by Mike Marsee
Eli Roberts, center, of Lincoln County breaks from the starting line in his heat of the boys 100-meter dash Friday at the KHSAA State Track and Field Championships. Roberts finished 16th.
Cash Baird of Lincoln County watches a competitor during the boys high jump Friday at the KHSAA State Track and Field Championships. Baird finished sixth to cap his first season in track and field. Photo by Mike Marsee
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Germani Crosby wants it all.
The Lincoln County sophomore won two state track and field championships Friday for a total of four in three years, but her sights are set far higher.
Crosby hopes to continue to dominate the shot put and the discus, racking up even more championships and rewriting state records in both events before she leaves high school.
“My next goal is to get the state records for both shot put and discus,” Crosby said.
In the present, however, Crosby was thrilled to sweep the Class 2A titles in both throwing events at the KHSAA State Track and Field Championships.
“I’m so glad I won both. This means a lot to me and my coaches,” she said.
Crosby claimed two of the six state championships won by area athletes in the Class 2A section of the state meet at the University of Kentucky.
“I’ve been wanting this since eighth grade,” she said. “I wasn’t as focused, I’d say, the last couple of years, but I’ve really locked in and focused on what I wanted to accomplish.”
Crosby won her third straight state shot put title by almost 4 1/2 feet with a throw of 40 feet, 2 1/2 inches, and she won the discus for the first time by more than 23 feet with a personal-best throw of 134-1.
Her targets in the state record book are 43-7 1/4 in the shot put and 145-3 in the discus.
Crosby credited her improvement this season in large part to her work both in the weight room.
“I hit the weight room a lot, getting my upper body and my lower body stronger,” she said.
She said her work with her coaches, Don Harris of Lincoln and Andy Fryman, who holds the overall state record in the boys discus and the Class 2A record in the boys shot put, also helped her tremendously.
And she got to share her success with younger sister Zyanya, a freshman who earned her first two state meet medals of her own by finishing fifth in both events.
“I’ve been hyping my sister up since day one,” Germani Crosby said. “She’s the one that got me into shot and discus because she’s the one that joined track first, and I couldn’t have gotten this without her.”
Zyanya Crosby said she was thrilled to share the podium with her sister.
“It feels really good, and I want to make my family proud and make Germani proud,” she said.
Zyanya Crosby had a personal record in the shot put with a throw of 32-10 1/2. Her top throw in the discus was 106-10, which she said was a little over 3 feet shy of her PR in that event.
The Crosby sisters scored enough points in their two events to give Lincoln a top-10 finish in the girls team standings. The Lady Patriots were in ninth place with 28 points.
And Zyanya Crosby said the rivalry between the two sisters who live and train together is alive and well.
“Oh, it’s tight,” she said. “It’s really, really tight.”
The Crosbys weren’t the only Lincoln athletes with something to celebrate at the state meet. Cash Baird was happy to finish sixth in the boys high jump at the end of his first season in track and field.
“It’s my first year doing it and I’ve put in a lot of work, so I feel pretty good,” Baird said.
The freshman cleared the bar at 6-2 to surpass his PR by 2 inches.
He said he came out for track and field because he thought it would help him stay in shape for basketball and he thought he might do well at it.
“I think my coaches and my dedication to just try and try and try to get over the bar and technique and just repetition (helped me),” Baird said.
Mercer County, the defending Class 2A boys team champion, exceeded expectations by finishing second in the boys team standings.
“We were expected to get fourth. We were only supposed to score 31 points and ended up scoring 52,” Mercer coach Lyn Flach said.
Boyle County was third in the boys standings, its highest finish since winning a team title in 2019.
The Rebels got a boost from the 400-meter relay team of Andrew Nason, Eli Short, Brock Driver and Jordan Brown, who won in 43.23 seconds.
“We were seeded second and we were like, ‘We’re getting that gold medal,’ because it was only .2 seconds off, if that, and we PR’d by another half a second today after already getting our PR by, like, half a second at regionals,” Short said. “We were ready to take that gold and secure the state championship.”
Brown was the newest addition to the relay team, joining for the regional meet after recovering from stress fractures in both legs.
Short, the only senior in the group, said he was thrilled to win his final high school race. He plans to try out for the team at Louisville next year.
“I’ve been running track for seven years, and we won regionals and that had me over the moon … so to be able to get first place, especially in an event I’m extremely passionate about, yeah, it just has me over the moon once again.”
Mercer’s only individual win came from Titus Gay, who exceeded his previous best in the boys triple jump by more than 2 feet with a leap of 43-8 on his final attempt.
He had a couple of minutes to get the measurement, and as soon as he heard it he began bounding around the infield, hugging teammates and shouting for joy.
“I knew it was a good jump … and (the official) was taking forever to find the measurement … so the anticipation was just insane,” Gay said. “And then he says 43-8, and it just made me so happy because as a freshman I never would have expected to go that far or to win state. I’m only 15 years old. I’m just so happy.”
Luke McQueen of Casey County has been chasing championships in the boys shot put for some time, and he closed his high school career by winning indoor and outdoor state titles as a senior.
McQueen, who will throw for Western Kentucky next year, had a top throw of 58-3 1/2 to win by more than 6 feet.
“I’ve just gotten more consistent,” McQueen said. “I’ve only been spinning for a very short time, and I’ve been able to work and stay well balanced.”
McQueen also shared a state title with Casey sophomore Brady Wright, who won the mixed unified shot put at 67-1 1/2.
