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St. Marys nips Williamstown for title

Williamstown’s Tommy Bobbitt, left, and Chase Uppole run side by side in the 400 meter run at Saturday’s W.Va. Class A state track meet in Charleston, W.Va. Photo by Jordan Holland.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Sweet, sweet redemption for St. Marys.

The Blue Devils out-pointed Williamstown 105-99 to claim the Class A state track championship Saturday at University of Charleston Stadium.

St. Marys went into the final event of the meet with a 95-93 lead, with the Yellowjackets right on their heels. The 4×400 relay team of Will Billeter, Walker Hashman, Brady Gorrell and Zac Long took first place with a time of 3:31.61 to secure the championship. Williamstown placed third in the event to finish second.

Last year’s state meet came down to a similar situation, with the Devils holding a one-point lead going into the 4×4. Williamstown finished one spot ahead of St. Marys to win state by one point, a heart-breaking end to the season for the Blue Devils and head coach Richard Conaway. However, history did not repeat itself.

“That 4×4 was like deja vu,” Conaway laughed. “You get that pit in your stomach and anything can happen, you know? This year, a little bit different ending. And I must say, I’m just elated. I’ve been doing this a long time and this is the first (state title).”

Jacob Northrop was St. Marys’ only athlete to win an individual state title. Northrop swept the throwing events with a mark of 158-8 in the discus and 50-7.25 in the shot put. Both wins were critical, as Williamstown’s Sam Harris and Trevor Hoosier both were favorites to win the events.

“After regionals, I knew I was going to have to put in some work,” said Northrop, also a member of St. Marys’ state champion football team. “I asked coach if I could borrow some shot puts and discuses for over the weekend. I was working my tail off. Two or three hours each day, I would come to practice and stay after some. Just hard work, doing the little things and fine-tuning the engine basically.

“Coming in I was hoping to win one, one or the other. Never thought I’d win both.”

Though Northrop took home the only individual hardware for the Devils, several others played integral roles in the team title.

“Everybody stepped up,” Conaway said. “Clayton Studer in the disc — he hadn’t been throwing very long. Walker Hashman stepped up, Brady Gorrell, Zac Long, Will Billeter — it was just an entire team effort. We wanted this.”

Studer placed sixth in the discus (135-8). Hashman was runner-up in the 800 (2:02.57) while Gorrell finished second in the 1600 (4:37.80). Long scored in the 200 (23.23; second), 400 (50.89; third) and 300 hurdles (41.53; fifth). Billeter had a fourth-place finish in the 400 (51.20) and Cole Smith was fourth in the 110 hurdles (15.82). St. Marys also claimed runner-up finishes in the 4×100 and 4×200. However, the Devils would not be beaten in the 4×400.

“We were confident,” Northrop said of watching his teammates try to lock down a state title in the 4×4. “We knew we had to go in and give our best effort. Everybody was standing along the edge of bleachers cheering them on.”

For Northrop, holding off the Yellowjackets was “sweet. Best way to describe it. It feels sweet.”

Williamstown finished 36 points ahead of third place Doddridge County. Chase Uppole nipped Hashman in the 800 (2:02.15) for an individual title. The 4×1 quartet of Donathan Taylor, Trenton Tallman, Jon Petty and Dakota Hammer set a new state meet record with a time of 44.23, besting the time of 44.34 set by the ‘Jackets in 2004. Williamstown also was third in the 4×2 and 4×4. Tim Wickham took home a pair of second place finishes in the 110 hurdles (15.55) and 300 hurdles (41.09). He finished .48 seconds behind state champion Jacob Pierce of Paden City in the 300 hurdles.

“I’ve never been so nervous in my life,” said Pierce, who ran the race in 40.61. “As soon as they started setting up the hurdles for the girls, all the jitters started going away. I realized ‘This is real now. You can’t be nervous.’ I came up to the last two hurdles, and I thought ‘Two more hurdles and you’ve got this.’ I just kept pumping, my legs were cramping … As soon as I crossed the line I just started yelling.”

Hoosier finished third in both the discus (151-1) and shot put (47-6.75), while Harris was fifth in the shot (46-8.25). Williamstown also scored three points in the 400 as Tommy Bobbitt placed fifth (52.05) and Uppole was sixth (52.12). Bradey Fayad chipped in a fourth place in the 300 hurdles (41.52) and sixth place in the 110 hurdles (16.85).

Doddridge County’s Hunter Riffle concluded his high school career in style. After claiming a state title in the 3200 Friday, Riffle placed first in the 1600 Saturday with a time of 4:32.97. Other top scorers for the Bulldogs were Gage Smith in the 800 (2:06.50; fifth), Hunter Hayes in the 110 hurdles (15.67; third) and Dawson Evans in the 110 hurdles (16.61; fifth).

Jarett Allender had a third place finish for Ritchie County in the 800 (2:04.07). The Rebels finished tied for fifth with 25 points.

Blake and Bryce Jarrell finished third (4:37.94) and fifth (4:40.74), respectively, in the 1600 while teammate Austin Garrett was sixth in the 200 (23.83).

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