Alyssa Scherich - File Photo by Lance McDaniel at Last Years State Meet
Senior Alyssa Scherich of Fairmont Senior in a time of 21:32 won the tight battle for individual honors at the Big Ten Conference Championships held at North Marion High School, and Bridgeport girls edged past Philip-Barbour for team titles. Junior Nicholas Trefz running 18:27 led his team to victory and made it a sweep for Fairmont Senior in the individual championship honors.
Scherich finished in 3rd place last year at the West Virginia State Cross Country Championships and has had a very strong cross country season this year winning her their race of the year. Scherich was 4th at the Geico Classic, 2nd at the Chick-Fil-A, 1st at the Big Ten Invitational, 4th at the Bee Knight Combo, 1st at the Wheeling Park Fall Classic, and 2nd at the Times Invitational
Reba Cutright a junior from Buckhannon-Upshur made it close as she was only 2 seconds back in 21:34 to take the conference individual runner-up honors. Cutright has quietly created quite a resume of her own. Cutright has 3 individual wins this year as well and three runner-ups finishes. Cutright won the Bobcat Kickoff Classic, the Big Ditch Lake Invitational and the Buccaneer Invitational.
Bridgeport Senior girls took the team honors by placing 5 harriers in the top 17. Morganne Phillips led the way with a 4th place finish in 22:06. North Marion placed two girls in the top 5 with Emma Harrison taking 3rd in 21:55 and Devan Elliott grabbed the last top 5 spot in 22:22.
In addition to Trefz’s individual title, the Fairmont Senior Boys cross country team placed 4 in the top 10 and all 5 in the top 18 to score 41 points. Providing the team with a 37 point victory over Elkins were runners Jacob Richards in 5th at 19:21, David Collins 8th in 19:50, Matthew Strand a freshman in 19:54 for 10th place, and rounding out the scoring for Fairmont was Joshua Perrucci’s 18th place finish in 20:37.
Tony Hayes a junior of East Fairmont claimed the runner-up spot in 19:03. Sophomore Austin Hamrick of Elkins was 3rd in 19:07, and Abraham Merinar a sophomore from Bridgeport grabbed the other top 5 spot with a 4th place time of 19:08.