Patriots Claim Top Spots At Belpre Invitational
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BELPRE -- Though they were far from home, Wheeling Park made the most of their foray into the Belpre Cross Country Invitational on Saturday, with Patriot runners taking first place in both the boys and girls races.
On the boys' side, junior Rylan Moore clocked in with a 15:52 to top the field, as Park finished in fourth as a team. Cabell Midland took first place as a team.
"The thought process was just go out there and run my race just like I would any other time," Moore said. "I knew there were some good runners, but I know if I run my race I can compete with everybody."
Moore led start-to-finish Saturday in capturing the gold. Luke Rettenberger from Warren finished in second at 16:04.
"This is the first win of the year," Moore said. "I'm really looking to be myself because I know when I run my race I can compete with anybody. As long as I run my race I know I have a good shot at winning any race.
"I feel like I'm doing great and I mean we have, I think, the best coach (father Ricky) in West Virginia, so if you listen to him, he'll lead you as far as you need to go."
Fellow Patriot junior Brenna Tipton topped the girls race, running a 18:29 to finish over a minute ahead of the rest of the competition.
Wheeling Park finished in fifth as a team. Cabell Midland similarly prevailed in the girls race with the top team finish.
Tipton, who came in first in last year's state cross country race, defended her title in Belpre, having taken the gold in last year's race as well.
"I had a tough race against (Herbert Hoover's) Maysen Fletcher at the St. Marys Invitational, Autumn Classic, and then this past week we were up in Pittsburgh and I ran against some people I never heard of and let's just say they were so talented," Tipton said.
"I was coming off some sickness, so this week I really just wanted to have a good race that I could use as confidence going into the next few races because I really needed a confidence booster."
John Marshall's Zoe Zervos finished in third in the girls race, clocking a 20:01. The Monarchs finished in eighth out of 15 teams.