Prep Track: Numbers helping Mercer find strength

HARRODSBURG - The Mercer County boys track and field teamis finding strength in numbers.

Not that the Titans weren’t already strong. They won a regional championship and were a top-10 team in their section of the state meet last season. But now they are developing one of the deepest rosters they have ever had, and they think that will help them have one of their best seasons ever and perhaps even contend for a championship in their section of the state meet.

Mercer has more than 30 boys in the program, a number of whom came on board for the first time this year to join a talented group of returning athletes.

“We’ve got some new additions from the soccer team and some transfers,” said senior Isaiah Burrus, who won a state championship for Mercer last season in the Class AA 400-meter dash.

The kind of numbers the Titans have now give head coach Bill Smith and assistant coaches Mark Dunn and Terry Yeast choices they didn’t have before and has given the athletes more people to push them in practice.

“It’s made them more competitive in practice,” Yeast said. “And it’s nice have some kids to choose from in the relays.”

The results have been evident in Mercer’s early-season meets. The Titans crushed the competition in a March 27 all-comers meet at Boyle County that opened their outdoor season, dominating a field made up primarily of area teams.

They won seven of 18 events at the March 30 Pulaski County Invitational, leading for most of the meet before finishing a close second to Pulaski, a AAA school.

“That gave a boost to everybody’s confidence,” Burrus said.

Alex Bosse, one of the newcomers to the team, said the individual and collective early-season success has given everyone a lift.

“It’s awesome. It just gives you encouragement to go out and practice every day and work your hardest,” he said. Bosse said he is part of a group of “four or five friends” who came out for the team this season with high hopes.

“We always heard about how good the track team is and the potential of everybody,” he said. “This year a lot of us came out, and we all think we have a pretty good chance at taking the title.”

The list of talented newcomers also includes eighth-grader Kobe Ford, a transfer from West Jessamine who was part of two winning relays and was second in the 200 at Pulaski.

“He’s faster than I was in eighth grade,” Burrus said.

Burrus said harder practices have been a by-product of the higher expectations this season.

“Training has not been the easiest,” he said. “The coaches are pushing us. They want that team championship.”

He said Dunn is the one who pushes hardest in practice.

“The more people that come out, the harder he makes it,” Burrus said. “He’s pushing us to our limit. He told us he wants our practices to be hard so our meets are easy.”

Dunn, who also coaches the Mercer girls, said he hasn’t change.

“I push the same as when we had seven kids,” he said. “I don’t look at it as helping us; they’re helping themselves.
“Our goal is always to win, so that doesn’t really change. Does it increase our chances to win? Yes.”

Of course, that won’t be easy. Mercer took 14 athletes to the state meet last season and scored just 22 points to finish ninth in the Class AA boys standings.

But Burrus said he and his teammates have resolved that their individual goals will take a back seat to the team’s objective.

“To win the team championship is the main goal,” he said.