NTSPY GIRLS' CROSS COUNTRY FINALIST: Jaydon Cirincione

Josh Cook, The Evening News and the Tribune, Jeffersonville, Ind.
·2 min read

Jun. 23—Floyd Central junior Jaydon Cirincione had a breakout season for the Highlanders.

Cirincione started it off by winning Gibson Southern's Titan Invitational. She followed that up with a fourth-place finish in the Class AA race at Columbus North's Rick Weinheimer Classic. Later, Cirincione placed 11th in the elite race at Brown County's Eagle Classic, seventh in the Valkyrie Invitational and a third in Bedford North Lawrence's Ted Fox Invitational before winning the Hoosier Hills Conference meet.

In the postseason, Cirincione finished first in the Crawford County Sectional and Regional races before placing fifth at the Brown County Semistate. She capped off her season by placing 24th — to earn All-State honors — at the IHSAA State Finals, where Floyd finished seventh.

"My junior season, it was really good, it was everything I wanted," Cirincione said. "My goal was to get All-State and I did that. I did have a little bit of a tumble at the end of my state meet, but I still pulled through and I did well. I'm proud of myself."

Cirincione, who was under the weather that week, stumbled and fell near the finish line at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course.

"I just took a few more stumbles and crawled over (the finish line) and I finished," she recalled. "I did lose a couple places — based on what my coach said, he said I was around 18th and I fell to 24th — so I was a little disappointed I didn't get any hardware this year. But hopefully next year I'll get some very nice hardware."

Cirincione, who'll be running for the Floyd track & field team this spring, said she hopes to run in college.

First, though, she has high hopes for her senior season.

"I still see room for improvement, so I'm excited for next year and I'm hoping to get top five and as a team we're hoping to strive to win next year," Cirincione said. "We've got big expectations."