St. Marys' Anna Bennett and Ravenswood's Riley Sotomayor compete in the 800 during last year's Class A state meet in Charleston. Bennett is favored to win the 800 in single-A while the Red Devil is also expected to claim the same title in Class AA. (Photo by Jordan Holland)

PARKERSBURG — Doddridge County won’t be a factor at this year’s Class A state track and field meet since last year’s champions are now competing in double-A.

As it stands, the 2025 single-A state runner-up girls from St. Marys and the fellow state runner-up boys from Wahama are favored to bring home the small school championship plaques.

St. Marys, according to runwv.com predictions, is expected to have the third, fourth and fifth high-point scorers with Anna Bennett, Avry Bennett and Laney Watkins, respectively.

Watkins, the defending champ in the 400, is pegged to win the 100 and 200. Anna Bennett, last year’s 1600 victor, is favored in the 800 and picked to place runner-up in the 1600 and 3200. Avry Bennett, who is predicted to take third in both hurdles events, will be out to defend her pole vault title after clearing 10 feet, 2 inches last spring.

“We are as healthy as we have been for the season,” admitted third-year Blue Devil head girls coach Dave Davis. “We are a small group. We’re prepared and we’re ready to go. We’re still trying to decide some girls’ places. We have girls in multiple events so we are trying to balance things out and play some chess of how we want the meet to kind of go. It’s going to be a close race with us and Wheeling Central, for sure.

Ritchie County's Kellen Cress, pictured here competing earlier this month in the long jump at the Erickson Invitational, is hoping to help lead the Rebels to some team hardware at the Class A state track and field championships. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

“We had a close race with them at the regional winning by 10 and I think it’s going to be even closer than that. I do have a girl out that’s sick and a girl that’s hurt. They made it through the regional and they qualified, but they’re not going to make it to the state meet, so I’m going to lose five or six points there out of those girls.”

Although Wahama’s boys are expected to take the top prize home to Mason County, the Rebels of Ritchie County head man Rick Haught are also hoping to bring back some team hardware to Ellenboro.

“That is the goal,” Haught admitted of trying to have a 1-2 Little Kanawha Conference team finish. “You know, in some ways, I’ve got five seniors and they all qualified for state. I don’t know if I’ve ever had every senior qualify for state, but they all qualified. There’s a nice small mix of seniors, but other than that I think we’re really young. I think my younger kids have really done a nice job and are in a good spot right now to really help us.

“I think Kellen (Cress) is probably the guy who has the ability to score the most points for us in a meet, but we qualified in 17 of the 18 events. For us to probably do what we want to as a team down there we just got to kind of nickel and dime. I don’t see a lot of chances to have state champions, but we can score in about every event to where maybe, you know, we can have something to say with the team race.”

While Cress is expected to finish runner-up in the 300 hurdles, third in the long jump, fifth in the 110 hurdles and sixth in the 400, Chase Morris is favored in the discus as is Brayden Watson in the pole vault.

Wirt County’s Tyler Smith is favored to win the 400 at the Class A state track and field championships. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

The Rebels are also expected to get points in the pole vault from Carter Satterfield and Isaiah Poole. Ayden Pittman (6th, 200), Jenner Stewart (7th, 1600; 8th, 800), Noah Shoemaker (4th, 300H), Blake Seese (5th, 1600) and Jenner Keen (6th, high jump) also will be vying for key points.

“I do think we’re in a good place right now,” Haught said. “Probably since like the first of May, about that South meet (Erickson Invitational), I thought we really started coming on, and that’s not to say I don’t have some kids. Chase Morris is a senior who I think he’s got a chance to win the state, especially in the discus and I think he’ll throw the shot put (picked third) real well.

“Kellen, I think will have a big weekend. Now he’s got to battle some Wahama kids in a couple of his events it seems like, but he has to have a big meet for us, and I think my junior pole vaulter, Brayden Watson, I think he has a shot. He has a shot of maybe winning it.”

Ritchie County junior Natalie Henger, who won state in the discus a year ago with a throw of 116 feet, 2 inches, is expected to defend her crown. The Rebel is coming off a school record heave of 129 feet at the regional. The Rebels’ other top expected placer is Morgan Morris (3rd, shot put; 8th, discus). Teammate Bentlee Williams is picked to place in both the 1600 and 3200 while Sophie Henger is slotted sixth in the pole vault.

The only other area girls predicted to place in more than one individual event are Wood County Christian teammates Sabena Stewart (4th, discus; 5th, shot put) and Amber Perkins (3rd, 3200; 4th, 1600), Gilmer County’s Paige Sterns (3rd, 1600; 4th, 3200; 6th, 800), Blue Devil Sidni Gerlach (3rd, pole vault; 7th, 100H) and Magnolia’s Bella Sockman (2nd, 200; 3rd, 100).

“I’ve moved girls around to put them in the best spot to be successful,” added coach Davis. “We’ve tried to give them the best chance to not only make it to the state meet, but also to score there. We have a couple girls running maybe events they didn’t think they would be running earlier in the season, but it’s probably going to work out for us better now for the regional and the state meet. We are about where I thought we would by this time.

“Just see if we played our cards right and the girls are in the right positions. You got to stay healthy and I have a lot of underclassmen. This team is being carried by a couple of sophomores and a junior. We got to keep them healthy and spread them out evenly to be successful, and then at the end of the day we have to have some fun. You got to have some fun doing it.”

Two other single-A area boys are favored to win individual events with Wirt County’s Tyler Smith (400) and WCC’s Koa Navarro (3200). The Wildcat is picked second in the 1600 and the Tiger fourth in the 200.

Magnolia’s Anthony Lancaster was tabbed for runner-up in the shot put and discus. Blue Eagle Riley Dennis (6th, 1600; 8th, 3200) as well as WCC’s Holden Misel (4th, 800; 5th, 400) and St. Marys’ Desmond Parks (2nd, 800; 4th, 400) were picked to place in two events.

Also, St. Marys’ Bryce Bills is picked to place third in the 1600, fourth in the 3200 and fifth in the 800.