MORGANTOWN – Both University and Morgantown High Schools participated in the first meet of the cross-country season on Tuesday evening on the campus of University High.
Alongside the two Monongalia County schools were; Buckhannon-Upshur, Doddridge County, Clay-Battelle, Brooke, East Fairmont, and Frankfort. A decent-sized field for the first race of the year faced the teams.
The girls began the night at UHS. Alexis Lamb from Doddridge County finished first with a final time of 18:30.9. Not far behind first was Madeline Gump of MHS, who finished in second place with a final time of 19:06.7. Lydia Falkenstein from Buckhannon followed Gump and University’s Claire VonBotticher was fourth with a time of 20:04.9.
For official team results, the AAA finished as follows (note that the lower score is best in XC):
Morgantown – 36
University – 43
Buckhannon-Upshur – 49
East Fairmont – 86
The boys then ran their race after the conclusion of the girls. This time it would be the hosts to dominate the field.
University runners took five of the top 10 spots, including three out of the top four overall. UHS senior Ryan Blohm finished first with a time of 15:55.7. His teammate Drew Zundell finished third with a 16:17.1 time posted. Jacob West finished fourth to round out the top 5 for the Hawks. He posted a time of 16:26.2.
Blohm says he had a great summer and was eager to get back onto the course despite the nerves.
“This was a great way to open the season, this summer has been some of my greatest running and training I’ve ever had,” the UHS senior said. “Even though this was a small meet and it is our home course I was still nervous stepping up to the line but that all went away eventually. Around a mile and a half I started dropping to third a little, but something kicked in and I just started going.”
The boys results were as follows for AAA:
University – 22
Frankfort – 33
Morgantown – 85
Buckhannon-Upshur – 102
East Fairmont – 115
The next meet is Saturday at the Preston Knight Night relays hosted by Preston High School. Races will begin at 5 p.m.
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