It’s the classic individual, head-to-head cross country rivalry. Maggie Drazba versus Sami Harris.

Woodford on his way to the AA-A Boys Victory   McCauley making her move at the 2 mile mark Under clear, sunny skies, the AA-A boys kicked off things in Ona, WV at the West Virginia Cross Country State Championships.

Alex Dent of Hurricane - Top AAA Girl (Photo by Lance McDaniel)   AAA Girls 1600m Video (Featuring Alex Dent - AAA Girls High Point Performer)   Team State Champions: Class A State Champions: Williamstown Boys and St. Marys Girls Class AA State Champions: Ritchie County Boys and Oak Hill Girls Class AAA State Champions: Jefferson Boys and Buckhannon-Upshur Girls New State Records: (11) Lacey Hampton of Bishop Donahue (Photo by Danny Farley) Triple State Champion and 3 New State Meet Records Class A (7) Girls 100m high hurdles 33" - 14.90 - Lacey Hampton of Bishop Donahue Girls 300m low hurdles 30" - 46.65 - Lacey Hampton of Bishop Donahue Girls HIgh Jump - 5'-03" - Lacey Hampton of Bishop Donahue Boys 800m run - 1:59.76 - Derrick Chaffin of Richwood Boys 4 x 400m relay - 3:32.57 - Charleston Catholic (Will Dobins, Will Farkas-Worth, Seth Ritchie and Michael Robinson) Girls 4 x 102.5m shuttle Hurdle Relay - 1:06.90 - Williamstown (Kylie Hammer, Jessica Kerns, Lincoln Postlewaite and Keeper Gray) Girls 4 x 400m relay - St. Marys - 4:16.40 (Rachel Taylor, Kelsea Fickiesen, Dani Renner and Ali Johnson) Class AA (0) Class AAA (4) Boys 800m run - 1.54.03 - Andy Bailey  of St. Albans Boys 3200m run - 9:14.23 - Dayton McVicker of Fairmont Senior Girls 4 x 102.5m shuttle hurdle relay - 1:04.13 Buckhannon-Upshur(Susie Godwin, Emily Godwin, Lauren Cvechko and Ashley Hall) Girls Shot Put - 41' 3.25" - Karissa Knabenshue of Buckhannon-Upshur High Point Performers:   Bria Welker of Frankfort - 3 AA State Titles: 200m (25.65), 400m (57.71) and Long Jump (16' 10.5") (photo by Lance McDaniel) Class A Girls: (30) Lacey Hampton of Bishop Donahue and Maggie Drazba of St. Marys Class A Boys: (40) Kyle Davies of St. Marys Class AA Girls: (38) Bria Welker of Frankfort Clas AA Boys: (36) Brandon Franklin of Liberty Harrison Class AAA Girls: (24.5) Alex Dent of Hurricane Class AAA Boys: (24) Brandon Doughty of Jefferson AAA Boys 1600m Video (Featuring Brandon Doughty - AAA Boys High Point Performer)   Kyle Davies of St. Marys (Photo by Lance McDaniel) Kyle Davies of St. Marys won all 4 events he entered in class A  scoring the highest point total (40) of any athlete in any classification. The 4 State titles were in the 100m (11.29), 200m (23.08), 400m (50.71) and long jump (20'-07")   National Elite Performances: (59) West Virginia State Meet National Elites  

Johnson, Drazba and Sigler Lead St. Marys Williamstown Defines Team/Davies Scores 40  WV Region IV A  -- Charleston. St. Marys girls held off a pesky Williamstown team 196-181 to win the West Virginia Region IV A meet. Charleston Catholic was a distant 3rd with 86 points. Each team got their points in different ways. St. Marys won 10 individual events and Williamstown won 3 individual events. Williamstown won 4 of the 5 relay events with St. Marys winning the other relay race.   Alison Johnson, a sophomore, from St. Marys led her team with 32.5 points with some unusual winning combinations. Johnson won the 400m dash in 1:02.76, the 300m hurdles (50.61), the long jump (15’-02.5”), and anchored the winning 4 x 800m relay in 10:50.21. Freshman Maggie Drazba scored 30 points by sweeping the distance races. Drazba won the 800m (2:31.77), 1600m (5:29.39) and 3200m (11:35.70). Teammate Ashley Sigler, senior, won the shot put (30’-10”) and discus (98’-03”).   Open article for complete recap

The past weekend may have been a slow week as far as the number of meets, but the times posted were not slow.   Cody Pelliccioni, a junior from Morgantown, followed up his win at the Red, White, and Blue Classic with another dominating performance at the Mountaintop Combo held at Preston High School in Kingwood. Pelliccioni, posting a 16:23, ran away from the field in convincing fashion for a 23 second victory over 2nd place finisher Dayton McVicker  (16:46) of Fairmont Senior.   Lydia Martinelli, a senior from University High School, was just as impressive as she took first place honors at the Mountaintop Combo with a 34 second victory in 20:17 over Molly Summers of Grafton who crossed the finish line in 20:51.   Moving into the #2 spot for the girl’s rankings is Sami Harris a freshman from Charleston Catholic with her victory at the Battle Run Invitational held at Nicholas County Cross Country course in Summersville. Running 3 days later in the Ripley Covered Bridge Invitational she took 2nd place in 20:11 to Maggie Drazba, a freshman, of St. Marys. Drazba took top honors with her winning time of 20:02. Drazba has had several top finishes this year including an earlier victory in the A/AA race at the Geico Classic.   Forest Festival, held in Elkins, showcased several of the top ranked runners for the year and it did not disappoint.  Alex Dent , a senior from Hurricane, and the #3 ranked girl won the big invitational against some stiff competition with a time of 21:09. Brandon Doughty, a junior, from Jefferson and the 3rd ranked boy took the boy’s race by 34 seconds in 17:40.   Here are the boy’s rankings:   WV Runners High School Boy Rankings   Here is the girl’s list of the complete rankings:   WV Runners High School Girl Rankings