As the calendar works its way to August, sports fans around the area are well aware of what that means.
That’s right, it’s cross country season.
While the harriers across the state may not be the first fall athletes to come to mind, the sport is definitely growing in popularity, especially in the southern part of the state.
Woodrow Wilson, Shady Spring, Nicholas County, Greenbrier East, Oak Hill Wyoming East and Richwood have all developed strong programs and will look for continued success this year.
The Flying Eagles have been the standard bearer in Class AAA Region 3 on both the boys and girls side for the past seven seasons under head coach George Barbera.
The ladies have won seven straight regional titles, while the boys have raised the championship trophy at six of the last seven regional meets.
Maintaining that dominance this season, however, is going to be a challenge for Woodrow Wilson which was hit hard last year by graduation.
It’s a challenge that Barbera’s crew is ready to meet head on.
“It’s a rebuilding year on both the boys and girls side. We graduated seven or eight good kids that I have coached for four years and they continued to improve throughout their career,” Barbera said. “Most of them have gone on to run in college, so we are proud of that. We are just going to try and build on that success.”
The boys team is led by one of the top runners in the state and will be bolstered by the return of another strong runner that is ready to make himself a household name.
“I would say coming into the season when they put out the top rankings that Aiden Kneeland will be in the top-5 and Brandon (Canaday) will not be far behind. After the first race, (Brandon) will probably move up,” Barbera said.
Kneeland took the cross country world by storm last year as a freshman, winning the regional meet by over one minute in a dominant run.
Canaday, on the other hand, was sidelined last fall by an injury before he bounced back for a strong track season in the spring.
“Our only senior on the team is Jonah Morgan who is doing really well,” Barbera said. “Mason Nettles set his personal record in the mile this past track season and he runs over 40 miles a week during the summer time.”
Nettles has kept his running up amidst a summer that has seen him travel to Ecuador, the Amazon jungle, Alaska and even Disney World in Florida.
“Bob Shirey has worked hard all summer, along with Tristan Camarillo,” Barbera explained. “Tristan is a middle distance runner in track, but he has ran cross country each year and he is improving. I think we will be consistent after the top two guys and we will have different people in our top five every week.”
If the boys team is going to have a good season, it will depend in large part on the consistency of the runner behind Kneeland and Canaday.
“I impress upon them the importance of the No. 4 and No. 5 (team finisher). It doesn’t matter how good your one, two and three (finishers) are, if you don’t have a solid four and five, you are not going to score well as a team,” Barbera said. “I don’t have numbers, but I do have some depth.”
Graduation has been particularly unkind to the girls team the last couple of seasons who won’t have a senior on the roster this year.
However, that doesn’t the mean Flying Eagles are short on talent.
Four rising juniors will anchor the Beckley squad this year including Lauren Curtis, Kyndall Ince, Cecilia Lindley and Hannah Keiling who all finished top-10 in the regional meet as sophomores.
The girls team will also be bolstered by Madison Farrish who finished inside the top-20 at regionals in her freshman campaign.
“The Misch girls (Lani and Laken) have also been doing really well training this summer,” Barbera said. “I could have a different five each week with the girls as well. We don’t really have that breakout runner this year, but they are all closer together. Hopefully with them all running together, they will help each other improve.”
Woodrow Wilson will open the cross country season by hosting the annual Chick-fil-A Invitational, Aug. 27.
“I have had teams calling me from all over the state this year and we have a team possibly coming up from Virginia as well. Last year we had 43 schools and it was awesome,” Barbera said.
The season opening event will be held on the track beside Beckley-Stratton Middle School which has been a huge key to Beckley’s success over the years and the development of cross country in general.
“We are grateful to use it as a training facility and a place to host the race. That track has been a key to development of our runners, our program and the sport in this area,” Barbera said. “It not only provides a safe and an amazing place to train, it turns the sport into a spectators sport. People that have never known anything about cross country gets to watch the entire race from one spot. It helps build the fan base and gets the parents involved too.”