ONA – The Woodrow Wilson boys and girls teams had a strong showing late Saturday night at the 2022 St. Mary’s Medical Center Cross County Festival at Cabell Midland High School.
Aiden Kneeland (16:28.76) led the boys charge finishing third overall, followed by Brandon Canaday (17:53.21) who came home eighth.
The Flying Eagles had three other runners finish in the top-18 for the day in the boys race. Robert Shirey (18:52.75), Jonah Morgan 18:54.44) and Michael Haddadin (19:02.73) finished 16-18 respectively.
Runners inside the top-50 for Greenbrier East were Zion Detko (20:54.9) in 40th and Jackson Carter (20:56.28) in 41st.
On the girls side, Woodrow Wilson finished fourth in the team competition, just four points outside of third place Huntington.
Lauren Curtis and Kyndall Ince were the top-two runners for the Flying Eagles. Curtis (21:48.55) finished in ninth place and Ince (22:49.24) came in two spots back in 11th place.
Hannah Keiling finished 25th (24:34.70), Lani Misch came in 34th (25:35.41) and Elise Vredeveld came home 43rd (26:44.30). Lakyn Misch (27:19.64) was 48th and Cecilia Lindley (32:10.13) was 58th.
Abigail Londeree (22:57.21) was 14th for Greenbrier East, while teammate Abby Dixon (24:03.62) finished 23rd. Annie Whited (25:09.43) came in 29th for the Spartans with Luella Mansheim (25:48.04) at 37th, Maddie Lilly (27:07.21) 47th, Carter Wolfe (28:54.01) 52nd and EmmaJo Palmer (29:42.63) was 54th.
Shady Spring finished sixth as a team in the AA-A boys race led by Jaedan Holstein (18:10.51) in 11th place. Eli Northrop (19:19.37) was also inside the top-50 for the Tigers in 34th place amongst a field of 16 teams and 133 runners that included defending Class AA state champion Winfield and the Class A champion, Williamstown.
Other area runners inside the top-75 included three runners from PikeView, Nate Cook (19:45.07) in 42nd, Kaleb Blankenship (19:59.29) in 50th and Jonah Nolan (20:43.89) in 67th. Daniel Smith (20:29.28) from Shady Spring finished 59th, while teammates Garrett Hatcher (20:32.6) and Bo Huffman (20:33.53) came in at 62 and 63.
Wyoming East freshman Tommy Wikel (19:48.72) had another strong run and finished 45th.
The Class AA-A girls field consisted of 138 runners and 18 teams including Class A powers Doddridge County, who is the defending state champion, Williamstown and St. Marys, along with defending Class AA state champion, Winfield.
Shady Spring senior Charlotte McGinnis (22:03.35) led the local finishers in 20th place. Teammates Journey Whistoff (24:05.5) came in 50th, while Abby Honaker (24:21.36) and Gwynn McGinnis (24:23.8) finished 54 and 55 respectively. Braylie Wiseman ran home in 59th place for the Tigers who finished 9th in the team competition.
PikeView had three runners in the top-75 including Freshman Carli Spade (23:29.44) at 40th, Laicey Necessary (24:51:16) in 63rd and Bailey Williams (25:55.18) in 73rd.
Colleen Lookabill (25:31.62) from Wyoming East finished 69th.
