ONA – University High became the crowned kings and queens of West Virginia distance running on Saturday, at the 5,000-meter course at Cabell Midland High School.
For a sixth consecutive year, the UHS boys’ cross-country team brought home a state championship, placing three individual runners in the top 10 and all five scoring runners in the top 23. The Hawks finished with 42 points overall, easily beating out second-place Cabell Midland (80). Morgantown High placed fourth with 108 points.
“The boys kind of like don’t want to be the ones not to do it,” University coach Ed Frohnapfel said. “They want to keep things going. The tradition of prior years and the great runners. I worry about the team. Individuals take care of themselves.”
Meanwhile, the UHS girls dethroned Morgantown High from the top of the mountain to win its first state team championship since 2018.
Even with Adelyn Tager sitting out with an injury, her teammates stepped up and won the title with 56 points, with Cabell Midland taking second with 74. Morgantown High, which entered the meet winners of the last five state championships, finished third with 83 points. Preston High took fourth with 100 points.
“It’s everything to us,” said Abigail Rogers, who took second with a time of 18:40.79. “We were working for the seniors. We all just wanted to do it for each other and Adelyn. I was near the fence urging the girls to come on. We’re happy to do it. Wouldn’t want it any other way. We stepped up.”
The UHS girls had all five of its runners place in the top 23.
“Really happy for the girls,” said Frohnapfel, who also coaches the UHS girls’ team. “I didn’t think we’d have five to finish. The fact we did shows the effort they put in. They worked hard all year.”
Hurricane’s Tyler Steorts was the Class AAA boys individual winner for a third straight year, winning in 15:11. Aidan Kneeland of Cabell Midland was second.
“Steorts, he’s just special,” Frohnapfel said.
Tyler Umbright led University High with a third-place finish in 15:55.41. Ethan Conroy (16:07.35) was fifth, Micha Gainer (16:07.97) sixth, Logan Conroy (16:38.68) finished in 14th place, while Colin Schrull (17:07.47) was 23rd.
“Don’t want to be the ones that end it,” Umbright said of six consecutive state titles. “They perform each year. I have great teammates and a great coach. We push each other every day. We didn’t win the race today. It’s all the work we do all season.”
Umbright started out hoping to stick with Steorts, but the Hurricane runner proved too strong.
“We planned on starting out together,” Umbright said. “He started to pull away, I tried to catch up and expended too much energy. When the fifth guy comes in, it’s over.”
Andrew Carlton of Morgantown placed 11th with a time of 16:33.93 and Landon Griffith of Preston High led the Knights by taking 19th overall with a time of 17:00.07.
Buckhannon-Upshur’s Samantha Shreve, the favorite coming in, won the girls’ Class AAA individual title with a time of 18:27. Rogers was 13 seconds behind for second place. Rosalia Biundo took 14th for the Hawks in a time of 19:43.30. UHS also saw Claire Von Boetticher take 17th (20:06.47), Carolina Ballard was 18th (20:06.97) and Elizabeth West was 23rd (20:15.50).
Hallie Simmons (19:27.17) of Preston High came in ninth and Maraid Johnson of Morgantown placed 10th with a time 19:29.41. Sophia Schneider also placed 16th for MHS with a time of 20:02.26.
In Class A, Trinity’s Brianna Blake took 23rd overall with a time of 23:23.15 and Alexandra Ayers was 38th with a time of 25:44.92. Trinity also saw Miles Steptoe take eighth place with a time of 17:13.54, while Mason Mehlohn took 29th place in the Class A boys’ race in a time of 18:31.57. Mehlohn was the top freshman runner in the Class A boys’ meet.
— Story by David Walsh
