Shady Spring head cross country coach Eric Lawson had been waiting for the day he could put his full girls team on the course at the same time.
That day was Saturday at Little Beaver State Park in the Shady Spring Invitational.
The ladies proved why their coach had been so anxious to see such a day arrive.
Placing three runners in the top-nine and all five scoring runners in the top-20, Shady Spring slipped past Greenbrier East by one point to take the girls team title.
“We have known since the start of the year that if we could put it all together and get all nine of them out there, we could be tough,” Lawson said. “It was one thing after another and we never knew where the blows would come from. We finally got them all out today and they competed like I know they can.”
Sophomore standout Gwynn McGinnis was first across the line for the Tigers in second place.
“Gwynn is embracing the pressure that comes with being the No. 1 runner on our team,” Lawson said. “She is embracing the role of being the leader of the team and she is the force that is driving us right now.”
Bre Crouse finished third for Shady Spring. After being slowed by an early season injury, Crouse is finding her stride just in time for the upcoming postseason.
“I said at the beginning of the year that Bre Crouse was going to be a monster and she is cutting chunks of time,” Lawson said. “She is not establishing personal records by four and five seconds, she is cutting chunks of time off. Her and Gwynn are working really hard together at practice.”
Journey Wisthoff finished ninth overall for the host team and Abby Honaker was 15th.
“Journey ran really well and she has been sick for two weeks. She threw up halfway through the race,” Honaker said. “Abby Honaker has still been sick and she came in and toughed-it-out for us too.”
Audrey Justice rounded out the scoring in 20th place followed by Abby Szuch and Madison Shrewsbury in 22nd and 23rd place, respectively.
Szuch has improved steadily after battling the effects of the treatment for Leukemia which ended in late September.
“Abby Szuch is the story of the week. She came in at 26:24 and she hadn’t been able to break 27 minutes all year,” Lawson said. Madison Shrewsbury is cutting times in chunks as well. She is also starting to believe in herself. Audrey and Gracie ran their butts off today,”
The overall winner of the girls race was Neena McClintic from Greenbrier East. The freshman phenom won the race by over one minute.
“Today’s course was a lot harder than the other meets that we ran at. I still made sure I was under 21 (minutes),” McClintic said. “When we first started out, it was the like the beginning of a hill, so I made sure to push up the hill. Up until now, all of our meets were hard, especially the Oak Hill meet. I won that meet, but that course was really, really hard. I think it is the hardest course we ran at. Today was the second hardest.”
McClintic finished the course at 20:38.91, breaking the course record for the current design being used for the Invitational. The previous record was held by former Tiger standout and current Concord University runner Charlotte McGinnis.
“It feels really good. I wish maybe on my second mile I could have went a little quicker. I didn’t know their was a course record for this meet, so I didn’t know what it was,” McClintic said. “Hopefully we can come back next year and I can get a (personal record) at this meet and break the record again.”
Luella Mansheim finished fifth for the Spartans, while Maddie Lilly was 12th overall. Kate Adkins was 16th and Noelle McClintic came home 17th.
Katie Collins and Abby Dixon from James Monroe finished fourth and fifth, respectively, while Carli Spade from PikeView was sixth. Summers County basketball standout Avery Lilly was eighth Saturday. Rebecca Lã¶rincz from Victory Baptist Academy was tenth.
PikeView won the boys race with all five scoring runners in the top-12. Tyler Huffman finished in second place and Matt Murphy was third to lead the Panthers.
Nate Cook took fifth place with Jonah Nolan crossing the line in eighth place and Elijah Keaton was 12th.
Shady Spring was second led by Eli Jordan in fourth place and Logan Malott in sixth place. Vaughn York was tenth overall followed by David Hegele in 13th place and Reid Radford in 15th place.
“They may not have had their best race today, but I am still proud of them regardless. I am still happy with what they are doing,” Lawson said about his boys squad. “You are going to have fluctuations, especially when you have young runners. They are still cutting time, still competing and still hungry. It was nice to see Ethan Dowdy, Bo Huffman and Connor Bishop get to come out and run. They have been battling injuries and today was their first race of the year.”
Sawyer Dobbins from Clay County won the boys event Saturday in a tight battle with the two PikeView standouts.
“I just usually stick with the fastest guy. If I still feel good later in the race, I just start to pick up the pace,” Dobbins said. “Today was my best run here so far. I am pretty happy about it.”
Jackson Carter from Greenbrier East was seventh and Isaac Conoway from Victory Baptist Academy was ninth.
