Morgantown's Athena Young & Lea Hatcher Qualify For NXN

The Morgantown girls had a pair of runners qualify for the Nike Cross Nationals in the Southeast regional held on Saturday in Cary, North Carolina. Morgantown senior Athena Young and sophomore Lea Hatcher finished second (17:04) and third (17:34) respectively to be among the five national individual qualifiers from the NXN Southeast Regional. They will travel this week to Portland, Oregon to compete on Saturday, December 7th against the nation's best.

For the recent University of Kentucky commit Young, her race was a new 5K personal best as she primarily had been the #2 runner for the Morgantown girls behind the state champ Hatcher for most of the season. The Morgantown girls also finished a strong 7th place as a team in a very deep field comprising the best squads among the 11 states within the Southeast region. Irene Riggs finished 9th in the race and only two places from joining her teammates Young and Hatcher at nationals with a sub 18 minute effort at 17:55.

Morgantown boys were also competing at NXN Southeast and Jackson Core was their leading performer with a 26th place finish in the championship race and running a new 5K PR with an incredible 29 seconds at 15:40.

A few hours south in North Caroline at the Foot Locker South Regional in Charlotte on the same day, University sophomore Larry Josh Edwards was only five places away from qualifying for Foot Locker Nationals in running a new 5K PR of 15:19 for 15th place in the seeded race. Being only an underclassmen, the West Virginia AAA state cross country champion Edwards should stand an excellent shot to come back to qualify over his next two years of high school. AA state runner-up Carter Lipscomb of Doddridge County was the next fastest runner from West Virginia at Foot Locker South with a time of 15:57 to finish 55th in the seeded race.

University senior Zoe Shetty was the top West Virginian girl at Foot Locker South finishing in 20th place to earn All-Region honors in the seeded girls race and bounce back in a big way from her 9th place state meet finish in the AA race. Her time of 17:58 was a new 5K PR by 15 seconds.

Also finishing among the top 50 in the competitive seeded race at Foot Locker South among West Virginia girls and going well into the 18 minute range in the process were University junior Caroline Kirby in 29th place at 18:08 and Parkersburg's Madison Trippett in 50th place at 18:29.