Warren High School junior Luke Rettenberger, who finished fourth during last year’s News and Sentinel 2-mile race, topped the field Saturday after clocking in with a victorious effort of 10 minutes and 9 seconds. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

PARKERSBURG – Warren High School junior Luke Rettenberger has competed in the News and Sentinel 2-mile run more than once.

However, here Saturday morning the Warrior managed to cross the finish line before anyone else for the first time in his career as he posted a victorious effort of 10 minutes and 9 seconds.

With the help of Rettenberger, the Warriors were able to edge Parkersburg South for the team title as Patriot junior Gatlin McClain finished runner-up after being 39 seconds off his pace.

“Warren’s got their first race at Broughton’s next Saturday,” admitted Rettenberger. “I kind of went out here just basically to see what everybody has done this summer.

“I treated it sort of like a qualifier just to see where I’m at right now. When I started running my seventh grade year I’ve run it since. This is the best I’ve done. Last year I came in fourth with a 10:44.”

The Warrior added “I ran 9:35 in track so I was trying to see if I could go sub 10 in this one. I got close, but I’m happy with that. There’s a hill on the first mile and it’s like a gradual incline. The rest of it is all downhill.

“That’s one of the big things I struggle with. I try to run other people’s races instead of mine and I end up not doing very well. I came out here and I’m going to run my race. I’m not going to predetermine what the outcome is going to be and I’m just going to have fun running.”

Logan Arnold (10:57), Jimmy Erlandson (11:05) and Jonathan Schiefer (11:09) rounded out the top five boys in the 2-mile run.

“The goal was to try and win. Really, the goal was just to get a good time now, but I like winning, too, and that comes along with it,” admitted Rettenger. “Our team has done really good so far.

“I’ve seen a lot of guys work hard out here. We had pretty much almost all the boys. We were missing a few people because of vacations and such.”

Rettenberger said his summer prep work for cross country has been good.

“Track ended a little later and I got a late start,” said the Warrior. “I went to Ohio cross country camp at Otterbein and did a lot of miles there, and had a lot of fun.

“Instead of going for a lot of mileage this year, me and my dad just kind of focused on doing good miles, good volume, good pace. Kind of quicker miles than I did last year.”

The Warrior is hoping Saturday’s team effort will carry over into the cross country campaign.

“It’s going great,” Rettenberger added. “Our boys came out here to compete and we missed regionals last year by 11 points, I think it was, so this is our goal. This is our dream and we want to go to states as a team.”

In the 2-mile walk for men, Buddy Segal’s clocking of 20 minutes and 6 seconds was 21 ticks faster than runner-up Eric Reeves.

Daniel Comer (22:23), Albert Angle (22:24) and Tom Johnson (23:00) rounded out the top five walkers.