Warren's Luke Rettenberger finished runner-up to Tyler Consolidated's Amos Kimble during Saturday's Belpre Invitational at Civitan Park. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

BELPRE — Tyler Consolidated’s Amos Kimble continued his early season success here Saturday morning during the Belpre Invitational at Civitan Park while Wheeling Park’s Brenna Tipton was crowned champion for the girls.

Bridgeport’s girls topped the field with 40 points as Parkersburg South finished runner-up ahead of Williamstown, 87-114.

The Cloverleaf boys had just enough to edge Warren, 111-114, while Bridgeport needed sixth man Daniel Yearego to secure third over Fisher Catholic, which also had 138.

“I always know it’s going to be a fast race so I just try and go out fast and see if I can keep it,” admitted Kimble, who crossed in 15:48 as Warren’s Luke Rettenberger (16:15), Waterford’s Gavin Offenberger (16:39), Silver Knight Travis Moore (16:23), Wheeling Park’s Rylan Moore (16:23), Parkersburg South’s Gatlin McLain (16:40), Fisher Catholic’s Gavin Forbes (16:45.00), Bridgeport’s Troy Zorick (16:45.38), River Valley’s Jansyn Smith (16:59) and Wirt County’s Matthew Balis (17:05) followed in the top 10.

“I felt good. That last mile I pulled away a little bit. I just did what I needed to do and got the job done. I think I led the whole race. I just didn’t let up. I tried to keep first place the whole time. We got Doddridge and then Grafton up next. Those are probably my two hardest races of the year, so I’ll be racing against the sophomore (Micah Gainer) from University at Doddridge. He runs about a 15:30 and I’ll be racing a junior (Trevor George) from Elkins at Grafton and he runs about a 15:30, too. It’s going to be a rough couple races, but I think I can get the job done.”

Warren’s Alex Bishop placed 15th with a time of 17 minutes and 34 seconds during Saturday’s Belpre Invitational at Civitan Park. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Kimble, who is top-ranked in double-A in the Mountain State by runwv.com, previously had first-place showings at the Autumn Classic, the Midland XC Festival as well as last weekend’s Chick-fil-A Invitational.

“This was my first race with somebody who is really at my level and similar running ability and I just let the mentality get to me,” admitted Rettenberger, who was followed by teammates Alex Bishop (15th, 17:34), Caleb Yost (16th, 17:37), Spencer Rehl (34th, 18:26) and Clay Perry (47th, 18:54). “I was like ‘oh, I don’t know if I can do this or not’ and I held with him for 2 miles and I fulfilled my prophecy.

“I said ‘hey, I don’t think I’m going to do too good today’ so I didn’t end up doing too good today, and that’s a really hard mentality to break. I struggled with that pretty much all last year, but I know I can do better and definitely can run a lot faster than that. My dad is pretty much like my therapist every Friday night before we go to race. You let that compound in your head and you just can’t let that happen.”

Cloverleaf had a trio of top 25 efforts thanks to Gavin Forbes (7th, 16:45), Caleb Neville (14th, 17:26) and Noah Mion (20th, 17:42) while Clay Gucker (31st, 18:11) and Mason Clapp (39th, 18:38) comprised the rest of the team scoring.

The Indians’ top five girls finished in second (Aria Selario, 19:45), fourth (Mikaela Demoss, 20:07), 10th (Isla Tobrey, 20:55), 11th (Bethsayed Dankiewicz, 21:00) and 13th (Ash McBrayer, 21:25).

St. Marys’ Bryce Bills placed 18th with a time of 17 minutes and 40 seconds during Saturday’s Belpre Invitational at Civitan Park. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

The freshman Selario admitted the restart of the race was tough to deal with.

“It was kind of hard,” the Indian said. “It was hard to reset and go faster again. It was surprising, too, because I never had to do it before. I just wanted to go out here and run fast. I feel like I did OK.

“Not really what I wanted for time-wise, but it’s OK. It was really hot out. I was looking for low 19s time-wise, but we got out here and it was really hot. That didn’t happen, but it’s OK. I’m glad with my place.”

Tipton led the entire race and clocked in at 18:35 as the remainder of the top 10 featured John Glenn’s Ashlynn Kuklica (3rd, 19:58), Williamstown’s Cassie Sites (5th, 20:12), St. Marys’ Anna Bennett (6th, 20:19), John Marshall’s Kalyn Reese (7th, 20:37), Parkersburg South’s Jalyn Eddy (8th, 20:37.19) and Patriot teammate Alyssa McCrady (9th, 20:37.83).

“Our team did, but I wasn’t here. I was at a soccer game,” replied the sophomore when asked if she competed a year ago. “I do both. Today we had a game, but I chose to come here today instead. It went good. This is my first time getting first in a high school meet.

St. Marys junior Anna Bennett crossed the finish line in sixth place after clocking in with a time of 20 minutes and 19 seconds during Saturday's Belpre Invitational at Civitan Park. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

“I was excited and I really wanted to go sub 18 for the first time today, and that didn’t happen, but it feels good to get first. I think the heat got to us and I was definitely a little dehydrated, but I can PR later in the season so it’s no big deal. I knew the field and I knew I had a good shot at taking first.”

Parkersburg South head coach Brian Blanc was more than pleased with the day as the Patriots also had scoring efforts from Haley Raper (15th, 21:32), Sophia Shamblin (27th, 22:49) and Lexi McKinney (32nd, 23:19).

“I couldn’t be happier with our team’s effort out there this morning,” admitted coach Blanc. “We knew today was going to be a great day to aim for new PRs because the course was in perfect condition. It’s about as fast as you can hope for in cross country.

“We ended up with 11 of our 22 competing athletes getting their season PR. I’m very excited about the depth of our girls team, the continued growth and improvement of both squads, and the promising young prospects I see doing so well for our feeder middle schools, Blennerhassett and Edison.”

Finishing inside the top 25 behind Sites for the Yellowjacket girls were Nola King (22nd, 22:22) and Sylvia Harris (23rd, 22:24) while Bella Bryant (34th, 23:25) and Alia Phelps (39th, 23:53) also aided in the third-place team finish.

Williamstown junior Cassie Sites finished in fifth place after crossing in 20 minutes and 12 seconds at Saturday's Belpre Invitational at Civitan Park. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Bridgeport’s boys also had top 25 efforts following Zorick thanks to William Northey (11th, 17:15) and Graham Northey (24th, 17:56). Parker Muncy was 28th with a time of 18:04 and Andrew Wagner placed 73rd at 19:50.

Also collecting top 25 finishes for area boys were Williamstown’s Jimmy Erlandson (17th, 17:39) and Zander Boyce (23rd, 17:53), St. Marys’ Bryce Bills (18th, 17:40) and Parker Barnes (22nd, 17:49) as well as Silver Knight Brody Nice, who placed 19th with a time of 17 minutes and 41 seconds.

Other area top 25 efforts for the girls included Warren’s Ashlee Pate (12th, 21:07) and Rania Singh (21st, 22:18), Belpre’s Shy Miller (16th, 21:40), St. Marys’ Savana Burd (17th, 21:47), Federal Hocking’s Elsie Amlin (19th, 22:00) and Blue Devil Maddie Smith (24th, 22:26).

The Belpre boys had their top showing from Drew Williams, who finished 69th after crossing in 19 minutes and 41 seconds.

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com