BY MATTHEW PEASLEE
MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown girls’ cross-country team is retooling in 2021, while the boys’ team is rebuilding.
The girls have two of the top runners in the state in Lea Hatcher and Irene Riggs. Hatcher and Stephanie O’Palko are the lone seniors on the girls’ side and hope to make their last prep season their best one yet.
“We got off to a slow start with the track season going into the spring,” MHS coach Mike Ryan said. “It’s a much later start this year than what we are accustomed to, but we got into the weight room at the end of June and were meeting regularly during the three-week training block in July.
“We’ve been going harder this week.”
Hatcher was the 2019 state champion with a time of 17:24.78 in the Class AAA title run. She was also a Nike National qualifier and was the Gatorade West Virginia Girls Cross-Country Runner of the Year. She battled through a back injury last season and felt the lingering effects of that ailment in the spring track season. Still, she finished in second place, right behind Riggs, in the 400- and 800-meter runs.
Riggs, also a Gatorade West Virginia Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year, paced the Mohigans to the AAA state championship a year ago. Her time of 17:59.82 was 29 seconds faster than the second-place finisher. Riggs, now a junior, aims to top her personal best 5K time of 17:51.3.
The boys’ team loses two talented runners to graduation: Jackson Snyder, who will be running at Marshall and Quinn Jacquez, who will be running at UNC-Asheville.
Brady Mundry and Preston Core could step up to fill the shoes left behind by Snyder and Jacquez.
“They’ve been there and know what it takes,” Ryan said. “We have some runners that have been varsity for a few years that can definitely take the next step this year.”
Since the beginning of August, the teams have started to get back into their normal routines. On Mondays and Wednesdays, the runners do a lot of core strength and hip strength training. They also do drills, hit the weight room and go for a run.
“Those are definitely our longest days,” Ryan said.
Tuesdays and Fridays, the Mohigans can be found on the rail-trail along Deckers Creek running and doing hill repeats. Saturdays are the long-run days.
“Right now, it’s building our base,” Ryan said. “We’re increasing mileage gradually. We’ve been doing that in the three-week period to get back on track. We just started some intensity workouts. We did a time trial earlier this week to get a feel for where we are.”
It’s all in preparation for the first meet Aug. 24, hosted by University High. The last weekend in August takes MHS to Preston County and Ryan already has his sights set on a big-time meet Sept. 11 in Pittsburgh.
In all, 26 girls are out for the girls team, while there are 31 boys. Ryan said those numbers usually hover around 60 total runners.
He has been the head coach of the cross-country team since 2010. He was previously the head track and field coach and still helps out with those teams in the spring.
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