Trigg County High School inducted their ninth class into its athletic Hall of Fame Saturday. The 1982 girls’ state champion cross country team was among the inducted, becoming the first cross country team to reach the hall of fame.
After finishing third at the state meet the previous season, the 1982 Trigg County girls’ cross country team brought home the program’s first state title and did it in dominating fashion.
With most of their team returning intact, Trigg County benefitted from the addition of 1981 state champion Kitty Davidson. She built an impressive resume running at Fort Campbell but moved to Trigg County for her senior season after her father retired from the military.
Even with the addition of Davidson, Trigg County fielded a young team in 1982 consisting of one senior, one junior, one sophomore, two freshmen, and three eighth graders.
While Trigg County was expecting a big season, they knew they would have to outrun their rival and defending state champion Providence for any hardware.
Trigg County opened the 1982 season with an impressive first place finish in Sikeston, Missouri with Davidson, Ginger Wallace, and Margaret Hendrix all finishing in the top five.
Trigg would finish second to Providence the following week at the Marshall County Invitational, with Davidson claiming her second straight individual title. It would be the only time Providence would beat Trigg County in an invitational meet in 1982.
Trigg won the Providence Invitational and their own Trigg County Invitational and finished second to Lima, Ohio at the prestigious Lexington Catholic Invitational that featured over 300 runners.
The Lady Wildcats won their second straight region title with Davidson and Hendrix finishing 1-2. Wallace was fourth, and Kristy Maggard ran a strong race to finish sixth. Micki Radford’s 11th place finish gave Trigg County a team total of 24 points – 18 better than runner-up Providence.
At the state meet, Trigg County continued their mastery of Kentucky schools and won the program’s first state title. Hendrix led the Trigg runners with a second place finish in 11:35 over the 1.8-mile course. She was six seconds ahead of Davidson who was third.
Wallace finished in 16th place, followed by Radford in 22nd and Maggard in 26th place. Only 40 seconds separated Trigg’s first and fifth runners. Trigg also got strong runs at the state meet from Trudy and Judy Lancaster, who finished ahead of several teams’ fifth runner.
Trigg County’s team total of 58 points was 14 fewer than second place Anderson County. Pre-race favorite Dayton was third, and Providence was fourth.
George Radford became the first Trigg County head coach to win a state title in two different sports. He headed the boys’ state champion track and field team in 1981. He was assisted on the state title team by Jim Wallace.