PHS represents area in triple-A state cross country race
Ellie Hosaflook (82) of Ripley runs amongst a pack of girls during the class AAA state cross country meet Saturday at Cabell Midland High School. (Photo by Aaron Lee)
Parkersburg's Jackson Wharton pulls ahead of Richard Hudson of Hampshire in the final stretch of the class AAA state cross country meet at Cabell Midland High School. (Photo by Aaron Lee)
Ellie Hosaflook (82) of Ripley runs amongst a pack of girls during the class AAA state cross country meet Saturday at Cabell Midland High School. (Photo by Aaron Lee)
Parkersburg's Jackson Wharton pulls ahead of Richard Hudson of Hampshire in the final stretch of the class AAA state cross country meet at Cabell Midland High School. (Photo by Aaron Lee)
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ONA – Both the Parkersburg girls and boys cross country teams qualified for the class AAA state meet at Cabell Midland High School for the first time since at least the beginning of head coach George Angelos' three-year tenure. The girls team finished sixth and the boys ended up in seventh place.
The best individual local finish however came from Ellie Hosaflook of Ripley, who finished 13th in the state with a time of 20:10.
Scoring finishes for the Big Reds girls team came from Ellie Hines (29th, 21:19), Abbie Bacorn (32nd, 21:25), Morgan Metz (42nd, 22:14), Katie Rutherford (48th, 22:30) and Audrey Wagoner (49th, 22:35). The team finished in sixth with a total score of 177.
University took home the class AAA girls runner-up trophy with a final score of 51 points. Morgantown won the state title with a composite score of just 35.
The Big Reds boys team finished in seventh place with a total score of 175. Jefferson emerged as a dark horse candidate and captured the runner-up with a team score of 95. University ran away with the boys title, accumulating just 35 points across their five runners.
Connor George (15th, 16:45), Jack Mills (39th, 17:36), Christian Rutherford (41st, 17:44), Jackson Wharton (48th, 18:16) and Ricardo Salazar (52nd, 18:25) all contributed scoring finishes for the Big Reds boys team.
Angelos described the day's events from the perspective of the Big Reds, "It was a typical, crazy state meet day. For many of our athletes, this was the first time they got to experience this kind of atmosphere and that kind of intensity and race. We've made great strides this year, and we have all five of our scorers back for the girls team next year and we have six of the seven back for the boys, so I think this is just a stepping stone. We took a step up this year, and I think that this is the start of hopefully continuous improvement for our team. It was the first time since I became the coach in the last couple years that we've advanced both teams to the state tournament."
It is not the first time that Angelos has coached the Big Reds to success at the state meet. Angelos coached Parkersburg to three straight podium finishes in the 1990s. The team also had a couple of individual state champions during that time and was ranked nationally.
Angelos went on to describe what the future could hold for Parkersburg cross country, "We're growing and improving. Down deep inside we thought maybe we could do a hair better, but realistically this was just another natural step in our growth and with basically both teams coming back in full force next year, we really feel like we can go a step better next year. We're excited about our future."
In addition to the local teams competing at the class AAA level, Braxton County won class AA with a score of 64 over runners-up Frankfort, who had a composite total of 84. Scoring finishers for the Eagles included Laura Cain (5th, 20:45), Addison Lloyd (8th, 21:01), Leah Payne (15th, 21:45), Teagan Huff (24th, 22:20) and Nicole Bramble (28th, 22:49).