Shady Spring and Nicholas County have a solid and respectful rivalry on the cross country trails.
Thursday afternoon, the two squads were expected to dominate the Class AA Region 3 meet and neither school disappointed.
Shady Spring won the title on the boys’ side with Nicholas County placing second and PikeView third. All three teams earned berths in the state meet.
On the girls side it was reversed.
Led by a strong showing from Natalie Barr who ran the best individual girls time and freshman Haley Johnson, the Grizzlies beat the Tigers by three points.
Due to the limited number of complete girls teams in the event, only the top two teams qualified for the state meet.
“I have said it from day one that these kids work extremely hard. I am blessed with great kids. Not just good athletes, but great kids,” Shady Spring head coach Eric Lawson said. “I never have to worry about anything. We work hard in practice, but it doesn’t feel like practice. It feels like we are just getting together to have fun.”
On the boys side the Tigers turned fun into a dominant performance, placing six runners in the first 13 finishers, while Zane Carrothers came home 20th.
Jacob Dowdy was the first Shady Spring runner to cross the line, shattering the previous course record. Jaedan Holstein was the next Tiger finisher, just one second off the best previous time set in 2017.
Teammate Sam Jordan was ninth, while Eli Jordan, Eli Northrop and Garrett Hatcher finished 11-13, respectively.
“Dowdy is popping off and Jaedan has kept improving all year,” Sam Jordan said. “My brother Eli Jordan and myself are getting right up there along with Eli Northrop. When the Eli’s are in a race, they will buddy run. They don’t quit. I love those guys. We will see what states holds for us.”
After missing almost the entire season as a freshman due to an injury, Dowdy has wreaked havoc on course records all season. Even when he doesn’t plan to.
“I wanted to be tactical today. I wasn’t trying to break any records, but after that first mile, I felt really good,” Dowdy said. “I figured I would go ahead and push it out a little bit. I was really just trying to come away with a win today.”
“Dowdy just has “it”. You can’t explain what “it” is, but he has it,” Lawson said. “It’s nice to have two of them like that.”
Alex Irvin finished third for Nicholas County and teammate Bradley Bostic came home seventh. Johnny Walkup (14), Wesley Holcomb (17) and Luke Barr (21) all had strong runs for the Grizzlies.
However, while Nicholas did not have the firepower to knock off Shady Thursday, the Grizzlies are hoping for a better result at the state meet.
“(Shady) looked good and they were strong on this course. They have been coached well all year. It was no surprise to see the course record go down today,” Nicholas County head coach Dave Irvin said. “We had a couple of kids that were close to the course record as well. It was very competitive, and my boys know they have some work to do. We are going to work hard this week and see if we can pull out a surprise down at Cabell Midland. We are all running towards Oct. 30.”
Braden Ward led PikeView’s effort Thursday in sixth and Matt Murphy was 10th. Nate Cook was 16th for the Panthers, while Chase Cantrell was 30th and Michael O’Sullivan was 31st.
In the girls race it was Barr and Johnson, along with Shady Spring standout, Charlotte McGinnis that separated quickly from the pack with the Nicholas duo eventually separating themselves from McGinnis.
“I started out feeling really strong, but about halfway through I started doubting myself. I wasn’t sure I could hold out much longer,” Barr said. “I knew I would regret it if I didn’t try my hardest, so I just kept pushing. I just told myself it would be over soon and to keep going. We were determined to come here and win.”
“The girls came out and they ran with their hearts. Our first two girls knew they had to go out and be competitive with Charlotte,” Irvin said. “They have been back and forth all year. I told them for us to pull this off, both of them had to do that. The rest of the girls really picked it up too. They knew what they had to do, and they knew the challenge in front of them. They ran with all they had.”
Catherine Jarosz was eighth for the Grizzlies, while Kathleen Walkup was 12th and Alanis Crowder was 26th.
Ryan Keffer was the next Tiger runner across after McGinnis in sixth place. Journey Whistoff was ninth and Abigail Houck was tenth. Lindsey Sweeney was 24th for Shady.
Wyoming East was the hard-luck team on the day, just one spot out in both boys and girls. The positive side for the Warriors was three runners qualifying by finishing inside the top 10 overall.
Senior Jacob Ellison qualified on the boys’ side with a fifth-place finish. Ellison made the state meet in his freshman and sophomore year but was denied his shot last year due to a COVID shutdown.
“I am just glad I got to compete this year and have a chance to go to states. It feels good,” Ellison said. “I knew it was going to be a quick race because it’s all flat. I just wanted to get a good start and run fast.”
“I told a guy I worked with that it would be a tragedy if something happened and Jacob didn’t make it,” Wyoming East head coach Randall McKinney said. “We felt confident if all went as planned that he would be four or five, which is solid.”
Colleen Lookabill qualified as a freshman and will make her second trip to the state meet also.
“I feel really good. I was predicted at the beginning of the year to place around seventh and I moved up three spots. I also think I got a new (personal record) here,” Lookabill said.
Maybe the surprise of the Wyoming East threesome was sophomore Sara Harris. Harris has qualified for the state track meet, but this will be her first state cross-country trip.
“I am excited and nervous, but I felt like I had it in me today. It makes all the hard work pay off,” Harris said.
“She has kinda figured it out here at the end,” McKinney said about Harris. “The strategy is to go hard and try to hang on at the end. That seems to be working for her.”
