Gallery by Heather Belcher
CLEAR FORK – There was no rain in sight Thursday afternoon in Wyoming County.
That did not prevent a pair of droughts from coming to an end at the Class AA Region 3 cross-country meet at Westside High School.
The Shady Spring girls started the event by placing all five of its scoring runners in the top-12 to win the regional title for the first time since 2011.
PikeView then edged defending regional champion Shady Spring by one point to win the boys event, capturing its first regional title since 2008.
For Shady Spring head coach Eric Lawson, it was a day filled with mixed emotions.
Lawson was thrilled with the win by his girls and clearly wanted to see his boys repeat as champions. However, the Tiger head coach is not only an alumni of PikeView High School, Lawson was a member of that 2008 regional championship team.
“We watched a story about Steve Prefontaine today and the way he ran. He said he would rather lose knowing he gave everything that he had. As they came across the line today, I asked them if they had anything left in the tank and they said. no. I told them I didn’t care what happened today, I was happy,” Lawson said. “Hats off to PikeView. They came in and ran a heck of a race today. Great senior leadership. I went over and congratulated them. I am proud of them too being an alumni of that school.”
The girls from Tiger town were the favorites coming in and Lawson’s bunch ran like they believed in themselves.
Senior Charlotte McGinnis, who has been a steady rock her entire career came home third, collapsing as she crossed the finish line. Sister Gwynn McGinnis was sixth overall, followed by Journey Wisthoff in eighth place. Abby Honaker raced home tenth and basketball standout Braylie Wiseman was 12th.
“All year long they have been so solid. Charlotte is always strong for us. Braylie is just a natural athlete. Little Honaker, I watched her run track in eighth grade and I really hoped she would run cross-country,” Lawson said. “Journey works so hard all the time. Gwynn, it’s just in the name. She will give us everything that she has all the time. Everybody that ran today was great for us.”
Nicholas County finished second behind Shady Spring led by Natalie Barr and Haley Johnson who finished first and second respectively.
“I like this course. There are no hills on this course, so that helps me out a lot. I don’t really like that it is spectator friendly because that stresses me out, but overall the flat (ground) helps,” Barr said, smiling.
Just like last year, the senior standout started strong and was never really challenged. After finishing second as a sophomore, Thursday was the second consecutive regional title for Barr.
“I had a pretty quick start, but I was worried I would lose the lead because I was getting tired, but I held it together. I am pretty excited about the win, especially finishing out my senior year. It couldn’t end any better,” Barr said.
Caroline Hinkle was 16th for the Grizzlies with Alanis Crowder two spots back and Catherine Jarosz was 22nd.
Individual qualifiers on the girls side for the state meet were Jenna Brown and Karsen Fletcher from Herbert Hoover.
The AA boys race was billed as a dogfight and it played out true to form with the Panthers grabbing the narrow win.
The win came on the heels of the AA sectional boys soccer championship secured by PikeView Wednesday night with a 2-0 win over Shady Spring.
One of the five runners that also plays soccer is Matt Murphy who scored the eventual game-winner Wednesday. Murphy still had enough in the tank to finished fourth overall Thursday behind teammate Braden Ward who was in third place.
“This has been (a) really nice (week). I was really looking forward to today even after last night. We just wanted to go out and beat Shady again to get that regional championship,” Murphy said. “Everybody has improved throughout the season. Everybody has (set personal records) throughout the season. Kaleb (Blankenship) and Braden really helped us and really added to our team which helped us win this championship.”
At the beginning of the season, Ward was unsure if he wanted to run cross-country. Needless to say he is very happy he decided to run his final year of high school.
“That decision to run feels great right now.,” Ward admitted. “We have been working so hard to be here and for it to pay off is really great. We have come up short to Shady the past three years and to finally get one on them is great.”
Ward would have loved to come home first, but a third place finish and a regional title made for a great day.
“I felt good at the beginning, but the more I got into it, I started to feel it in my legs. I have been running hard the past week trying to get ready for this,” Ward said. “I may have over trained a little bit. My legs felt it that last mile. I would have been happier with first or second, but I can live with third.”
Blankenship and Nate Cook were 13th and 14th respectively for the Panthers and Jonah Nolan was 17th.
With her boys winning the regional title and the girls, who are all underclassmen, qualifying for the state meet, PikeView head coach Sandra Webb was all smiles after the races.
“This is unbelievable. We are very thankful and grateful, but we are so excited. We held out faith that we would do well this year,” Webb said. “They have worked so hard. They were all really good to show up for practice and we told them that this was the day. They had to go all out and needless to say they did. The future is tremendously bright.”
The PikeView girls finished third to make the state meet, one point better than Herbert Hoover.
Carli Spade was fourth on the day, followed by Laicey Necessary in ninth place. Bailey Williams was 13th, while Lola McKinney was 14th and Caroline Fox was 28th.
Shady Spring senior Jaedan Holstein was the overall boys winner grabbing the elusive individual title for the first time in his high school career.
“I think I finished second my sophomore and junior year, so to finish of my career here as regional champion feels amazing,” Holstein said. “It was a good race today. I try to race smart so I will have enough to give that extra burst at the end. I felt better than usual today. It feel so surreal to win it, it almost feels wrong really.”
Holstein was followed by junior Jacob Dowdy who battled injury all season which limited his running time. Dowdy was still able to finish in sixth place overall.
“The heart that kid has is amazing. I don’t know how he does it. He has not seriously ran for six month. He gutted it out for his teammates and he ran a 17:50 today,” Lawson said about his junior star. “He gutted it out for his teammates and stepped up for his teammates. That is the stuff legends are made of. I was so proud of them. Jaedan has been so close and to see him succeed, that is what coaching is all about.”
Garrett Hatcher finished 12th for Shady Spring and Eli Northrop was 13th. David Northrop was 21st.
Nicholas County secured the final state meet bid on the boys side led by Johnny Walkup in 5th place and Luke Barr in seventh. Wesley Holcomb was 10th, while Isaac Coffman was 20th and Isaac Miner was 22nd.
John Duvall from Herbert Hoover was second overall to secure an individual spot on the state meet along with Sawyer Dobbins from Clay County in eighth.
Wyoming East’s young standout Tommy Wikel came home ninth and will also make his debut at the state meet this year.
The state cross-country meet will be held at Cabell Midland High School October 29. Class AA girls will run at 3 p.m. followed b y the boys at 3:45 p.m.
