Amber Watson

As with the majority of the other fall sports programs, the West Virginia Cross Country season has come to its regular season end. Local teams participated in their final meet last week and are preparing to head to Regionals this week.

The Tyler Consolidated High School Cross Country girls and boys teams participated in the LKC meet at St. Marys on Oct. 17, placing two in the top twenty in both divisions.

In the girls division, sophomore Amber Watson placed sixth overall at the meet of the 62 participants, turning in a time of 22:28; Aleah Black crossed the finish line second for the Lady Knights and 23rd overall in 23:58; McKenzie Bradfield, 24th, 24:03; Kelly Rice, 40th, 26:38; Hannah Phillips, 55th, 29:16; and Damara Winfrey, 62nd in 32:60.

As a team, the Lady Knights placed fifth overall in the team standings. Williamstown High School placed first with 38 team points; Ravenswood took second with 66; Doddridge scored 89; Ritchie County, 109; Tyler Consolidated, 120; St. Marys, 121; and Wirt County, 132. Teams with participants at the meet, but not enough to constitute a complete team were Braxton, Webster, Roane and South Harrison.

In the boys division, Ritchie County placed first overall in the team scoring at the event with 52 points. Silver Knight senior Ryan Dalrymple broke the top 20 at the meet by finishing 20th in 19:28; and freshman Kamryn Milhoan completed the course in 22:59 in 51st position.

Ryan Dalrymple

“The high school made the trip to St Mary’s for the LKC championship on Thursday, and due to injuries, other sports and other issues, we only had six girls and two boys ready to go,” said Knight cross country head coach, Luke Reynolds.

“We usually perform better in the cooler races, so the weather and course conditions didn’t bother me at all. Amber Watson placed sixth overall, and that puts her on the first-team all LKC for the second year in a row. We had freshmen Aleah Black and McKenzie Bradfield finish on the second-team all LKC in the 23rd and 24th spots, respectively. Some strong running from our senior girls, Kelly Rice and Hannah Phillips and sophomore Damara Winfrey, gave us a fifth place team finish.”

“The boys did well, also, with senior Ryan Dalrymple placing 20th, giving him second-team all LKC honors.”

“The regional meet will be a tough one. I have no doubt that we have several kids with the ability to place individually and make the trip to Cabell Midland on Nov 2. The team event for the girls is going to be the wildcard. We have run with and been competitive with some of the top teams in our region. We have to overcome the loss of a couple of our girls and have an excellent race across the board. These girls have accomplished more this year than I had anticipated, so I am still optimistic about our chances.”

At the Regional, the Class A-AA girls will compete at 2 p.m. with the boys event scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. Following the Class A-AA competition the AAA teams will compete on the course. Awards will be presented at 4 p.m. for the top 10 individuals in each competition and the first three teams in each will also be awarded.

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Tyler Consolidated’s Middle School Cross Country team completed their 2013 season last week as well, competing at the Doddridge County Invitational on Oct. 15.

Thirty complete girls teams competed at the huge meet with the ladies of Tyler Consolidated placing a very respectable sixth overall.

Of the 220 participants at the meet, TCMS eighth grader, Amanda Reynolds finished seventh overall with a time of 14:47.18 in the 3K. Jahnvi Duncan placed 12th with a time of 14:53.55; Katie Pratt, 19th in 15:18.63; Mercedes Florez, 127th, 18:07.54; Demery Nelson, 145th in 18:30.70; Megan Sole, 164th, 18:48.99.

In the boys division at the meet, 207 participants competed.

Eli Henthorn placed first for the Knights and 80th overall with a time of 15:32.31; Luke Daugherty placed 108th, in 16:06.73; Creed Ammons, 110th, 16:07.39; Destry Nelson, 125th, 16:32.71; Josh Frum, 133rd, 16:44.71; P.J. Wright, 149th, 17:16.39; Levi Pratt, 190th, 19:26.33.

The high school teams will compete at the Region I A-AA meet on Oct. 24 at the the Wood County 4-H Camp in Mineral Wells. Good things are expected from the Consolidated team with hopes that at least three will find themselves in the top 10 when the dust has cleared.

“The middle school meet went pretty good,” the coach said. “Our varsity girls placed sixth out of 30 teams, and then only one point out of fifth place. This team has really come together on the course, and once we nursed a few injuries, we put together an excellent finish to the season.”

“The boys finished 20th out of the 30 teams, and while this wasn’t their best placing of the year, it is still a large improvement over other seasons. We have gone from not having enough kids to make a complete team, to actually competing with many of the local teams.”

“Several of the boys are moving up to the high school team, next year, so we’ll keep them working hard and strive to improve on the successes that we’ve had. Our JV kids overall had good races and are looking forward to next years racing.”

“These young kids give it all on these races and its very satisfying to me to hear all the chatter about next year.”