Williamstown girls run away with Chick-fil-A
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MINERAL WELLS --The Williamstown girls showed up and did what they do best at the 23rd Chick-fil-A Invitational from Mineral Wells on Saturday morning.
Winning as a team, the Yellowjackets ran away with first (54), as Preston (103) and Charleston Catholic (158) didn't sniff the top spot. Leading the charge to make sure that didn't happen was WHS's dynamo, Alyssa Sauro. The sophomore defended her Chick-fil-A title by running eight seconds faster than her 2021 time with a 17:33.41.
She made quick work of weaving through the pack and quickly gained first place in the race's opening moments. She didn't look back, as she finished more than two minutes ahead of Charleston Catholic's Bella Boggs.
"The first mile, I tried to take it a little slower, so the second mile would be easier for me" Sauro said. "I'm happy with the course and how it wasn't wet (after previously raining). It was a fast course. I tried to make my way through the front and not start out too fast, because I wanted to save my energy for the rest of the race. We're going to Pickerington (next), and I'm super excited for that. It's a pretty fast course, and there's a lot of great competition there."
Working her way past the remainder of the field, Ellie Hosaflook's third-place finish at 20:00.41 saw her close the gap with Bridgeport's Kaitlin Pappas (20:05.89), as the Ripley runner passed her at the end of the race for the podium finish.
"My dad said it was about 50 meters," Hosaflook said of the ground she had to cover to catch Pappas. "I haven't sprinted like that and beat somebody like that in a while. It boosted my confidence a lot. These first races we've had this year haven't really been the best for me. This race, I really wanted to improve a lot. I wanted to boost my confidence, and I did with this race. Our next race is Belpre. Which I don't know who's going to be there, I don't know what it's going to be like, but if the competition is not too crazy, I'm going to go for the win."
St. Marys' Virginia Haddox claimed fifth (20:18.74) while Wood County Christian's Lacey Dimit also finished inside the top 10 in ninth (20:28.86). Although Williamstown's remaining runners finished outside that top group, the remaining W'town placers were scattered around the top 20. That team effort paid big dividends, as the 'Jackets are already in midseason form. The tandem of Brianna Winsett (20:35.41) and Lexi Wynn (20:36.87) finished 11th and 12th, respectively. Sydney Anderson scored for the Yellowjackets, finishing in 16th at 20:51.34. Rounding out the locals in the top 20 was Ava Lightfritz, as she came in 19th at 21:12.23.
Parkersburg (160) finished fourth as a team and was led by Katie Rutherford in 21st at 21:18.87. Following a pair of Ravenswoood runners (Samantha Maxon in 23rd and Hadleigh McGoskey in 24th), PHS's Aubrey Lantz and Ellie Hines finished together in 27th and 28th.
Those scores inside the top 30 lended themselves to success, and finishes just outside that saw local finishers aplenty. Tyler Consolidated's Emily Ebert finished 31st in 22:01.99, and Paden City's Jadyn Duncan finished right behind her in 33rd (22:10.31). Williamstown's Brookelyn Reynolds came in 36th (22:22.07), while Ripley's Opal Huffman was right behind her (22:24).
The boys' race, which happened earlier in the morning, saw locals further back in the pack, but they jockeyed for position just the same. In the team scores, it was Parkersburg South finishing fifth, ahead of every other local squad (173). Edging out Williamstown by one spot, South's scorers rose to the occasion. Walker Jones' 19th place finish was tops for the Patriots, and it went a long way to counteracting Williamstown's top finisher (Julian Johnson in seventh, 16:44.22). Other key placers also kept Parkersburg at bay, as Jack Mills crossed the line in 15th at 17:20.58. Following Zach Cannon's 25th place showing and Will Coiner's 31st place finish for Williamstown, South had to continue digging deep.
Aiden Blake was right behind Coiner at 18:01.71, and Brady Cochran, who was behind Tyler's Amos Kimble (35th), Ravenswood's Cade Curfman (38th) and St. Marys' Max Dauch (40th), finished right ahead of WHS's Frank Conner in 41st. In a meet where every position meant so much, there wasn't a lot of room for error.
Following Reece Westfall of St. Marys finishing in 45th, Parkersburg finally got back on the board with Ricardo Salazar in 46th. Fortunately for South, the next local finisher was one of its own, Lucas Jenkins in 53rd (18:53.97).
Daniel Martin crossed for the Big Reds in 58th in 19:02.15, but South's Lex Wigal neutralized that with a finish just a second behind him in 59th.
Contact Josh Hughes at jhughes@newsandsentinel.com