Wheeling Central’s Scott Looks To Defend ‘A’ Title
W.Va. State Cross Country Championships
Trending
ONA, W.Va. -- The West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission will crown its second set of state champions this school year when the state cross country meet is held here Saturday morning on the campus of Cabell Midland High School.
The Ohio Valley will be well represented as both Wheeling Central (Class A) and Wheeling Park (Class AAA) have qualified their entire teams after finishing as runner up in their respective Region I races last week. Individually, there are 14 runners entered representing nine different schools.
Boys
Wheeling Central
Junior Aidan Scott will look to make it back-to-back state championships when the Class A race starts at 12:45 p.m. H
e finished third as a sophomore and ran a 16-minute, 13.47-second race to win the regional crown last weekend.
He will be joined, individually, by senior Patrick Childers who has finished 31st and 29th, respectively, in the last two state meets. Childers was ninth in the regional, clocking in at 17:53.52.
"For the past two seasons, we have had two runners (Aidan and Patrick) represent Wheeling Central at the state cross country meet. This season, for the first time in 14 years, Wheeling Central will be represented with a full boys team," head coach Caitlin Francis said. "Aidan, Patrick, freshman Michael Hutnick (18th, 19:27.17) and sophomore Nathaniel Barack (20th, 20:09.84) all placed in the top 20 at the regional meet.
"The team set a goal at the beginning of the season to make it to the state meet. The seniors, Patrick and Chaz Frizzell (26th, 20:57.80), encouraged everyone to push their hardest every day at practice and at every meet," Francis continued.
"Chaz, junior Joey Secrist (25th, 20:52.00), and Tom Cottrill showed tremendous improvement at regionals that helped push our team to second place and sent us to the state meet."
Tyler Consolidated freshman Amos Kimble (5th, 17:10.23) and Magnolia sophomore Landen Davis (6th, 17:14.31) also qualified for the Class A state meet. Davis was 37th last year.
Wheeling Park
This is the third consecutive year the Patriots have qualified for the Class AAA portion of the state meet.
"The backbone of this team is our seniors. As sophomores, they finished fourth in state and as juniors they finished as state runner up," head coach Jacob Galik said. "This year we will see what we can achieve.
Our goal has been to get back on the podium," Galik stressed. "The guys have worked so incredibly hard and sacrificed so much to make that happen. We know we have our work cut out for us, University and Hurricane are incredibly talented and hardworking teams, but we have done everything necessary to have success and we will be ready when the gun goes off."
Wheeling Park was led by individual qualifiers Redick Moore (6th, 16:35.53); Ben Ashmore (8th, 16:45.95) and junior Seth Franke (10th, 16:50.60).
Also making the trip are Jonah Nizami, Brady Amico, Trent Thomas, Isaak Nizami, Eli Miller and Austin Musilli.
"The strength of our team is our depth. All of those guys are capable runners. Our 1-4 are really strong and all capable of being all-state runners (top 10 at the state meet)," Galik noted.
"How we perform as a team will be determined by how our fifth runner performs and each of those guys has been our fifth at some point this year."
The Class AAA race begins at 9:45 a.m., with gates opening at 7:30.
Weir
"We are very excited to be represented by Joshua Duffy at the state meet," Red Riders head coach Jeff Lewis said. "Josh has been working towards the state meet since the end of outdoor season.
"He has worked very hard throughout this season to get himself to this meet.
"His work ethic is second to none!" Lewis added.
The Class AA race starts at 3:45 p.m.
Duffy, a senior, finished fourth in the Class AA regional with a time of 16:47.
"Success is when preparation meets opportunity. In my heart, I know that Josh is going to run a great race on Saturday."
Also qualifying for the Class AA state meet was Oak Glen's Nick Gallo (10th, 17:13.30) who was 21st in last year's state race.
GIRLS
Paden City
The Wildcats qualified two individual runners in sophomore Lexi Mathis (4th, 21:07.10) and freshman Jadyn Duncan (8th, 21:45.20). Mathis placed 38th a year ago.
With her regional clocking, Mathis is now the girls record holder for a 5K. She also holds school records for the 1600 and 3200.
"Lexi continues to improve and is the only athlete from Paden City to have ever qualified for this meet more than once," Wildcats head coach Kayla Semple said.
"Jadyn has had a stellar season as a freshman. She has been awarded performer of the meet for three races this year on runwv.com."
Duncan also broke the 8-year-old school record by five seconds at the OVAC meet. The record was originally held by her coach.
Tyler Consolidated senior Emily Ebert (6th, 21:21.38) also qualified after finishing 23rd a year ago.
The Class A race starts at noon.
Weir
"We are very excited to be represented by Naomi Young at the state meet," Red Riders head coach Jeff Lewis said.
"Naomi has been working towards the state meet since the end of outdoor season. She has worked very hard throughout this season to get herself to this meet.
"Her work ethic is second to none!"
Young finished eighth in the Class AA regional with a time of 21:15.
"Success is when preparation meets opportunity. In my heart, I know that Naomi is going to run a great race on Saturday."
Also qualifying in the Class AA field is Oak Glen sophomore Hannah Kliner who ran a 20:27. She finished 31st as a freshman.
The Class AA race starts at 3.