Jacob Burcham (File Photo)
This year’s Geico Classic, which was held on Cabell Midland High School’s cross country course this past weekend, showed significant improvement in time from last year’s race and produced many Personal Records from some of the best competition in the state.
In the Boy’s AAA race, sophomore Jacob Burcham of Cabell Midland defended his Geico title with an impressive time of 15:49, bettering his time from last year by 51 seconds. Junior Peter Schwarzenberg of Preston was the runner up in 16:14, more than 1:15 faster than last year. And 2010 outdoor track 3200 meter champ, Dayton McVicker of Fairmont Senior took 3rd with in impressive time of 16:27, 18 seconds faster than last year. McVicker was followed by sophomore Brody Born of Preston in 16:49, over a minute faster than last year’s performance. Fifth place was senior Ryan Smith of Cabell Midland in 16:51. The Cabell Midland boys came out victorious on the team scoring with 42 points. Preston was 2nd with 112.
In the Girl’s AAA race, course record holder and senior Letitia Propst of Elkins came away with the win with a time of 19:38. Runner up was Morganne Phillips, a sophomore from Bridgeport, with a time of 19:46, one minute faster than her time from last year. Third place honors went to junior Alyssa Scherich of Fairmont Senior in 20:08, 16 seconds better than last year. In 4th place was a freshman from University High School, Amelia Paladino in 20:13. Senior Ashley Shultz of Preston closed out the top 5 with an impressive time of 20:15, bettering her time from last year by 50 seconds!
The AA-A saw fast times as well. In the Boy’s AA-A race, Tanner Mattie, a junior from Fairland High School in Ohio was the victor in 16:39 missing his personal record by 1 second! Second place was senior Pierce Reeves of Ironton High School in Ohio. His time of 16:54 was a personal record. The first West Virginian with a personal record time of 16:58, smashing his time from last year by almost a minute and a half was sophomore sensation Will Shaffer of Scott High School. Senior Drew Woodford of Grafton High was 4th in 17:12 bettering his ’09 Geico time by 14 seconds. Rounding out the top 5 was another senior from Ironton High, Gary Monroe, with a time of 17:18. Fairland High School in Ohio came out on top with 97 points, but not far behind was Grafton with 134 points.
On the AA-A girls side an Ohio runner topped the podium as well. Peyton Adkins, a junior from Gallia Academy in Ohio won the race in a time of 19:12. Senior Sara McCauley of Philip Barbour was the first West Virginia across the line finishing 2nd with a time of 19:21, bettering her time from last year by 22 seconds. St. Mary’s sophomore, Maggie Drazba placed 3rd with a personal record of 19:49. Erica Walker, a senior from Herbert Hoover was 4th in 20:05. And in 5th place was Philip Barbour sophomore, Brianna Waybright, running a time of 20:29, almost a whole minute and a half faster than last year’s race. Taking top honors in the team standings was Fairview High School of Kentucky with 76 points. The runner up was Philip Barbour with 106 points.