MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – It’s about that time of the year where power rankings don’t matter and cross-country runners tackle the regional meet in the hopes to make it to Ona.
But before runners trade those team rankings for a ticket to southern West Virginia in Thursday’s 4:30 p.m race, it’s worth noting who’s excelled in the regular season. It happens that all three Class AAA in Monongalia and Preston counties are in that group.
Leading AAA girls teams is University with 42 points. Morgantown finds itself No. 2 with 66 points, and Preston is No. 3 with 128 points. Two southern scores round out the top 5 – No. 4 Hurricane (133) and No. 5 Cabell Midland (148).
Three Mohigans and two Hawks rank in the top 5 of AAA runners, as sophomore Lea Hatcher and senior Athena Young take the top two spots, respectively. They are followed by UHS’ Caroline Kirby at No. 3 and Zoe Shetty at No. 4, and MHS freshman Irene Riggs at No. 5. University has two more runners in the top 10, seniors Emma Troischt (No. 9) and Emma Williams (No. 10).
Preston has two girls in the top 10 with Allie Martin at No. 6 and Chloe Stark at No. 8. Wheeling Park is the only other team with a runner in the top 10, No. 7 Isabella DiSaia.
In the boys league, Cabell Midland reigns No. 1 with 102 points, while No. 2 University (107) and No. 3 Morgantown (117) close out the top 3. Prior to the last meets of the regular season, the Hawks were the top team in AAA but were overcome by Cabell Midland at Saturday’s final deadline.
Although his team was usurped by Cabell Midland, UHS sophomore Josh Edwards still leads the boys’ individual rankings. Preston and Morgantown each have a runner in the top 5, too, with senior Cole Friend taking No. 3 for the Knights and senior Jackson Core landing in the No. 4 spot for the Mohigans.
UHS has one more runner in the top 10, No. 8 Rocco DeVincent.
“I hope Josh does as well as everyone thinks he’s doing right now — (which) he’s been doing great,” University coach Ed Frohnapfel said. “He works harder than everyone. I give him a pace for workouts and he always goes faster. The other guys cut the time as well, but it seems like Josh pushes himself even on the longer runs. He’s beaten everyone else in the region at least once this year, and he did well at Penn State and Carlisle.”
Other runners in the grouping are No. 2 Wyatt Hanshaw (Hurricane), No. 5 Chris Lucas (Hampshire), No. 6 Cooper Gibson (Cabell Midland), No. 7 Sam Lerose (Cabell Midland), No. 9 Trevor Carson (Riverside) and No. 10 Franklin Angelos (Parkersburg).
“We’re not really a big team for a AAA school, we’ve got 12 healthy girls right now and 16 or 17 healthy boys running,” Frohnapfel said. “The size is not bad, and everyone we’ve got works hard. They know what they have to do to get better, and it’s become a culture at UHS.”
That culture is driven by a varying group of runners on the girls’ side, while the boys are led by sophomores. Practicing together, however, allows the culture to bloom within both teams.
“It’s almost like a group effort with our seniors,” Frohnapfel said. “They coordinate things and make sure they’re doing their runs. They never goof off when they’re running — it’s always done with a purpose. Zoe picked it up from the seniors when she was coming in as a freshman, and she’s carried that mantle well since.
“The (young leadership with the boys) hasn’t been bad. We don’t have a senior on the team, and the guys have continued what they learned from the seniors (last year).”
‘We run these woods’
The class-leading Hawks have quite a bit going for them, and with the Region I meet at their home track they have even more of a leg-up on opponents.
But Frohnapfel and his runners aren’t taking any chances – they see themselves as underdogs coming into regionals, and the biggest threat is the Mohigans.
“The Morgantown High girls beat us at OVACs, so we’re going in feeling and looking like we’re underdogs on the girls’ side,” Frohnapfel said. “A couple of them need to step up and have a great run to beat Morgantown. On the guys’ side, we beat Morgantown but it’s a big difference when you have 300 runners at OVACs and 40 at regionals so we need to get our fifth- and sixth-guy to where they need to be. We could very well come out of regionals as the second-place team, and I’ll be emphasizing that in practices.”
Thursday marks the second time in school history that the race has been held at Bakers Ridge.
Mohigans look to win the ridge
Instead of going to a local race, Morgantown traveled to New York City to take part in the Manhattan Invitational on Oct. 12.
The boys’ team won 1st in their race, with Core finishing 4th with a time of 13:16.7. Quinn Jacquez (12th), Jackson Snyder (28th), Xavier Adams (46th), Charles Smith (55th), Preston Core (87th) and Brady Mudry (90th), finished out the tight race to edge their way into the top spot.
The girls’ team placed 5th in one of the most difficult annual races, the Eastern States. They combined for a score of 189, with Hatcher placing 5th overall clocking 14:07.9. Young placed 7th and was followed by Riggs (15th), Amelia Haddox (77th), Megan Weaver (85th), Lauren Hancox (92nd) and Amelia Summers (97th).
“It’s really upped their confidence,” Morgantown coach Mike Ryan said. “To go up and run with the best teams in New York, and beat the fourth- and fifth-ranked teams in (the state) is a huge boost going into regionals.”
Ryan expects the momentum to stick over the 12-day break between the Manhattan Invitational and regionals and believes he’ll see his teams on the podium.
Martin, Preston girls’ team not to be overlooked
The Preston girls’ team, though a regular season Big 10 conference contender, shouldn’t be forgotten going into Thursday’s race. Led by Martin, who placed 1st overall in the Big 10 championship with a time of 19:53.31, will be coming in with heat. Additionally, Stark placed 4th while another key racer Abby Nolan took 8th. Nolan is ranked No. 22 in the state among AAA runners.
Martin was also named girls’ Harrier of the Year for the second year in a row. Coach Paul Martin was named Girls Conference Coach of the Year as well.
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