Devil boys win ninth straight team title

ONA-All season long, the boys cross country team from Ravenswood has been chasing No. 1 ranked Berkeley Springs.

That chase ended Saturday morning when the 8-time, Class AA-A, state champions nipped their biggest rivals by a four-point margin, 77-81, to take title No. 9 back to Jackson County.

"It (the rankings) was a key factor today," veteran Red Devils head coach Bryan Canterbury explained. "All year long our kids had to deal with people thinking they couldn't get it done."

On Saturday, however, the red and black proved to everyone they could.

"These kids wanted to prove that they could win a state championship," added the coach. "This was a total team effort. They knew it had to be and they made it happen."

Senior Nathan Rees closed out his high school career in fine fashion with a second place effort. The Ravenswood standout covered the 3.1-mile distance in 16 minutes and 48 seconds to finish within 32 seconds of individual champ Lenny Roach of Berkeley Springs.

Rees was the only all-state performer for the Red Devils, but the defending champions were able to place all seven of their runners in front of the Indians' No. 5 performer to make the difference.

"We told our kids that today you have to go the entire 3.1-miles and they did and that was the difference."

Also finishing in the top 10and earning all-state laurels, was Doddridge County's Cuylor Edgell (6th, 16:56).

Third place in the team standings went to Philip Barbour with 89 points followed by PikeView (127), Richwood (134), Grafton (136), Wheeling Central (159), Doddridge County (175), Charleston Catholic (184) and Weir (187).

Winning the girls' title for the first time was the team from Shady Spring with a 20-point, 61-81, decision over Region One champion Wheeling Central.

Grafton finished in third with 97 points followed by Berkeley Springs (99), Frankfort (111), Saint Marys (139), Charleston Catholic (147), Doddridge County (158) and PikeView (176).

Locally, Ritchie County junior Aly Carpenter earned all-state honors when the Rebel standout crossed the finish line in 10th place with a time of 20:36.

In Class AAA, the Redskin gals and their opponents from University each placed two runners in the race's top 10 finishers, which earn all-state honors from the Secondary School Activities Commission-but, the Hawks' number three girl finished 10 places ahead of her Hurricane opponent while their No. 4 and 5 runners placed four and five places, respectively, ahead of their rivals.

Dent was the top finisher for the Redskins, covering the 3.1-mile race in 19 minutes and 13 seconds, and crossing the finish line in fourth place. Fellow junior Josie Crouch finished in ninth (19:23).

Finishing in third place in the team standings was Preston with 102 points followed by Morgantown (111), Jefferson (136), Hampshire (148), Cabell Midland (165), Buckhannon-Upshur (179), Parkersburg South (193), Capital (224) and George Washington (315).

In the boys' race defending (Class AAA) boys champion Wheeling Park made it two in a row as senior Kyle Gramlich led the way with a fourth place finish as the Patriots' upended Jefferson by four-points, 67-71.

"I knew it would be close," Wheeling Park head coach Michael Jebbia explained. "But, these kids made a tremendous commitment to the program over the summer and we have five seniors out there that were running their last race and they didn't want it to be in a losing cause."

Host Cabell Midland finished in third place with 93 points followed by Preston (121), Saint Albans (137), Fairmont Senior (140), Winfield (163), Hampshire (199), Parkersburg South (234), George Washington (240) and Musselman (252).