RIO GRANDE, Ohio – It was another successful weekend for the Warren High School cross country program at Saturday’s Patty Forgey Invitational.

The Warrior boys, led by the runner-up effort of Luke Rettenberger (16:26), placed their top five runners in the top 25 thanks to Spencer Rehl (10th, 17:20), Caleb Yost (12th, 17:27.41), Tyler Frye (13th, 17:27.70) and Alex Bishop (24th, 17:45) en route to posting a 55-124 victory against Rock Hill.

“We did really well,” admitted WHS head coach Ryan Werry. “That was our biggest race of the year. It was crazy, but that was one of those stepping stones for our kids. Coach (Tony) Zaleski and myself, we’re pretty pleased.

“We are on the upward bound. In our six races we’ve had two second place finishes and four first place finishes. Our top five is a senior and four sophomores. So far our boys are showing up and doing really well.”

The Warriors defeated 28 other programs, which included Doddridge County (4th, 219), Waterford (12th, 328), Ravenswood (22nd, 493) and Belpre (23rd, 530).

“Luke’s coming off a great freshman season, went to states in track as well,” coach Werry added. “He just missed the cutoff last year for cross country.

“I don’t think he’s going to miss it this year. He’s pretty determined. I’d love to see our team be able to go. We got another month before that happens.”

The Warren girls, who watched Ashlee Pate finish in 20 minutes and 26 seconds to take runner-up behind Huntington’s Laurel Johnson (19:52), placed third with 172 points, which was behind Unioto (111) and Highlanders (151).

“Our girls have been doing pretty well,” said coach Werry. “In the first three races we were second to Fort Frye and they are a state team. They have a lot of seniors on their team. They are pretty solid, so finishing second to them, you know, that’s good. We had back-to-back first-place finishes at Belpre and Fed Hock, so going into Rio we said we’ll see where we are at.

“They finished third and they had 25 teams on the girls side. You know, good thing about Rio is we run our district there, but we also know we are going to get some good competition. Ashlee has been rocking it for us this year as a sophomore. She’s getting more consistent and she’s stronger. She was the first girl to run under 20 (at Fort Frye) in my tenure in five years.”

Warren also had scoring runs from Rania Singh (33rd, 22:08), Cate Edgell (43rd, 22:33), Hollyn Reed (50th, 23:02) and Julianna Huffman (79th, 24:11).

Doddridge County was led by senior Bailey Holden, who finished fourth with a time of 20 minutes and 36 seconds.

Also leading their respective teams were Ravenswood’s Riley Sotomayor (21st, 21:43), Waterford’s Emmma Schaad (34th, 22:10), Belpre’s Shy Miller (70th, 23;46) and Wirt County’s Lily Cross (103rd, 25:27).

Whiteoak senior Landen Eyre crossed in 15:51 to win the title and the next fastest area boy was Waterford junior Gavin Offenberger (5th, 16:41).

Belpre’s Johnny Miller completed the course in 17 minutes and 28 seconds, which was good for 14th place. He was three ticks faster and finished one spot of ahead of Doddridge County’s Sam Gola.

Wirt County’s Matthew Balis placed 20th with a time of 17:35 and Ravenswood was paced by the 31st place effort of Gavin Wilburn (18:08).