ONA, W.Va. – It was a good day for Mon County athletes at the state cross country race at Cabell Midland, despite the new COVID-19 safety measures.
The biggest change was certainly single-A getting their own race, a move to cut back on the large grouping the typical AA/A race has. This split gave runners more room to work, which was beneficial for Clay-Battelle’s Chase Ammons and Trinity Christian’s Jenna Barnett.
Barnett, only a freshman, competed with a senior, junior and another freshman, all three from top programs: Williamstown – who took first and second – and Richwood.
Ammons was the only boy to qualify out of Clay-Battelle and took fifth overall in the boys’ 5K. With a time of 17:46, the senior almost had fourth and was just four seconds behind South Harrison’s Carter Bowie. Like Williamstown in the girls’ race, Doddridge County swept the top two spots as senior Carter Lipscomb (1st, 15:57) and junior Trent Gola (2nd, 17:23) held their lead easily.
“Making top five really meant a lot to me,” Ammons said. “Especially since the first half of our season, we were not allowed to practice or compete. It showed the determination Mon County athletes had. Other counties had many more meets and practices before states than our own. I was glad to be one of the few to represent Mon County at the state level. I would like to credit my coach, Justin Allar, who pushed me to attain my goals during this difficult time. I would also like to thank our community, family and friends for their continued support.”
Morgantown’s Hatcher exceeds expectations to claim second place in her second race of the season
It was strange not to see Lea Hatcher running most of the season for Morgantown following an injury, but the 2019 title winner came back into her own in this year’s title race to secure the runner-up spot.
Hatcher finished seventh at regionals, a great showing for her first race back since her back injury before Mon County’s jump from orange to green. After hitting a spot in third place for a good portion of the race, she made moves to take second place and maintained it for the finish. Her performance is huge moving into the offseason before track and field, as well as her senior year at MHS.
“Lea is a champion and she has that mentality in her,” Morgantown coach Mike Ryan said. “Even though she wasn’t 100%, she can still get out there and ran a really tough race.”
Hatcher finished behind her sophomore teammate Irene Riggs.
Caroline Kirby has an exceptional final championship race, Mia Murray excels in her first
University senior and Syracuse commit Caroline Kirby went out with a bang at the state race. Although she didn’t place first or second, she led her team to a solid finish by placing fourth with a time of 19:07.
Most impressive was freshman Mia Murray who came in just behind Kirby at 19:13. The two top-5 placements helped secure UHS second place overall behind rival Morgantown. Coach Ed Frohnapfel was elated with the two’s performance and credited Kirby’s leadership as a reason behind the team’s success not just in states but throughout the entire season.
“In the past, we’ve had other seniors, Zoe Shetty all the way back to Sarah Wills, they all kind of rallied the group and got people out to run. This year that fell on Caroline, and once the season started she realized who was running – we have five freshmen – she was able to get them to group up and run on days we weren’t scheduled to practice. She’s stepped up in that regard and as a team leaders, as far as her finishes, she’s been doing real well.”
University’s boys a power unlike any other
There aren’t many comparable teams to University year in and year out. While Morgantown is the only contender they’ve truly had in Region I, even the Mohigans were far away from the Hawks’ team score out of regionals.
Holding a score of 65 going into the championship race, UHS maintained their fast pack for an easy title win. Further, they’re just one of seven teams in the state, boys or girls, to have less than 100 points. Outside of classifications, they have the best overall score for a boys’ team and only two teams, Williamstown’s girls and Winfield’s girls, had better scores of 29 and 62, respectively.
“We won our first boys’ championship in 2006 and I try to impress upon the boys and girls they need to run all year,” Frohnapfel said. “They’ve bought into it. The boys’ team, Josh Edwards holds everybody accountable to get their runs in, which, they do it without Josh, but some of them would stray and not be working as hard and he’d call them out on it.”
Preston girls’ put two in top 10
The Preston girls’ team had a great showing at states, too, as two runners made it into the top 10.
Junior Allie Martin and sophomore Abby Nolan placed seventh and ninth, respectively, to lift Preston in the team standings to fourth. Martin was able to finish the race sub-20 at 19:51, while Nolan was just over the 20-minute mark at 20:06.
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