Yellowjackets Sweep Regional
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MINERAL WELLS -- Favored Williamstown swept the W.Va. Class A, Region IV cross country championships here Thursday afternoon as expected.
The Yellowjacket boys of head coach Cliff Taylor topped Buffalo, 35-54, while the WHS girls of head man Mike Taylor had the top four finishers and rolled to a 17-41 win versus Ravenswood.
Alyssa Sauro finished in 17 minutes and 47 seconds to top the field. Brianna Winsett (20:11), Reagan Ortiz (20:53) and Ava Lightfritz (20:54) followed with Brookelyn Reynolds placing eighth with a clocking of 21 minutes and 48 seconds for the Yellowjackets' fifth scorer.
"I love my team," Winsett said. "They push me everyday in practice, even in meets, and before my meets they help me prepare and just get ready for these meets and we're always there for each other. It's always fun, too."
Winsett said the 'Jackets already had put finishing runner-up last week to Doddridge County at the Little Kanawha Conference championships behind them.
"After a meet like that we have to kind of forget about it," Winsett admitted. "It's in the past now and just do our best now going forward.
"We're going to have some good competition (at state). If we all do our best we'll be good."
Mike Taylor added of his team's effort "we did a pretty good job today. It could've been better here and there. It's a good recovery from last week. We're set. We're good. I think the biggest surprise was Ava finished fourth. She stepped up big time.
"The biggest thing is now not to over train. We got our workouts planned out. The main thing is to not over due it now. We did the work all year, been running tremendous and just got to get recovered, rested up and go."
Buffalo sophomore Patrick Reilly finished in 16 minutes and 40 seconds to top Wood County Christian runner-up Michael Cline, who finished in 17 minutes flat.
"I wanted top three and I knew who my people were in front of me and to stay with them the first lap," said Reilly, who was joined in scoring by Nicholas Pitchford (7th, 17:36), Jackson Mallett (11th, 18:05), Justus Harris (21st, 20:19) and Bradley Harris (23rd, 20:53).
"My coaches told me to turn it on at the mile and a half to two miles and I did. That's how I beat them. I want top five at states, but we'll see how it goes."
Wirt County's A.J. Petrovsky was seven seconds behind Cline to finish third. Julian Johnson (17:15) and Zach Cannon (17:24) of Williamstown rounded out the top five. Chase Trembly was eighth for WHS with a time of 17:49.13. Also scoring for the 'Jackets were Will Coiner (12th, 18:11) and Dawson Winsett (13th, 18:33).
Only the top two teams and any individual runner inside the top 10 on a non-advancing school also qualified for next Saturday's state championship at Cabell Midland High School.
That means Ravenswood's Cade Curfman (6th, 17:27), Sherman's AJ Skeens (9th, 17:49.75) and Wirt County's Wyatt Nulton (10th, 17:52) advanced.
"I think we were a little bit slower than we expected to be, but a win is a win," coach Cliff Taylor noted. "Seven guys under 19 minutes (Alex Cockerham 14th, 18:41; Frank Connor, 15th, 18:55) I'm happy with that. We just got to try and peak out here a little bit.
"Have a good time, but be serious also because it's easy to think you got this thing won and it'll slap you in the face. We're trying to keep them humble and let them know there is somebody out there that wants your position. Williamstown wants to win, but everybody else out there wants to beat you."
No one wanted a win more on Thursday than Cline, but the Wildcat just didn't quite have enough.
"He made a little surge about a mile and a half and just picked up the tempo a couple more steps than I could handle today," Cline said of Reilly. "I would've preferred to win, but he played me.
"I went out a little fast assuming I could drop him, but he just kept pushing. Second place is fine. I mean I got states. I'll see what I can do at states and see if I can put the surge on him."
Wood County Christian's Lacey Dimit placed fifth with a time of 21 minutes and 7 seconds.
The remainder of the top 10 featured Ravenswood's Emily Wratchford (6th, 21:35), Samantha Maxson (7th, 21;42) and Maci Mosser (10th, 22:19) as well as Williamstown's sixth-place runner Chloe Lightfritz, who clocked in with a time of 21 minutes and 50 seconds for ninth. Also scoring for the Red Devils were Hadleigh McGoskey (12th, 23:12) and Kadi Price (13th, 23:35).
Calhoun County's Savannah Cunningham just missed out on the final meet of the season after finishing in 11th place.
By winning, the Yellowjacket girls set up a date with the Bulldogs for a race to the state championship in Ona.
Williamstown also will be chasing its fifth consecutive state titles.
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com