Charleston Catholic’s Arabella Boggs, right, congratulates St. Marys’ Anna Bennett after Bennett won the 800 meter run. (Photo by Jordan Holland)

CHARLESTON — Following a long two days at the Class A state track, both the St. Marys girls and the Ritchie County boys secured state runner-up team finishes.

The Blue Devils of third-year head coach Dave Davis amassed 75.5 of their 103 points thanks to Anna Bennett (28), little sister Avry Bennett (24) and Laney Watkins (23.5), who was a double-winner in the 100 (12.63) and 200 (25.35), while also running the anchor leg on the runner-up 4×4 team (4:25.22) with Lana Gilfillan, Anna Bennett and Natalie Mossor.

“Super proud of the girls,” admitted Davis, who watched Wheeling Central take the top prize with 113.5 points. “Central had a few more pieces than we did and a few non-performances by some other teams allowed some extra points in their favor. Overall, I’m very happy with the weekend and accomplishing what we did with only 13 girls.

“I couldn’t ask for a better coaching staff to help me lead these girls to back-to-back state runner-ups. Laney also broke our school record in the 100 and 200. Avry broke her own school record in the pole vault. Anna owns the 800 record from her LKC performance. Four records this year is amazing.”

Anna Bennett finished in 2:20.60 to win the 800 ahead of Charleston Catholic’s Arabella Boggs (2:21.39), but the Blue Devil had to settle for runner-up to Boggs in the 1600 — 5:12.09 to 5:30.43.

St. Marys’ Avry Bennett placed third in the 300 meter hurdles. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

“I didn’t exactly feel like I had a lot left in the tank, but somehow I was still with her and I was like ‘I got this. I can do this and I’m with her right now,’ but the whole point was to make sure she didn’t get a lead, and she didn’t,” Anna Bennett said of the 800. “Follow her, let her do all the work and then pass her at the end. Honestly, the plan worked perfectly.”

Avry Bennett placed seventh in the 400 (1:05.29) and was third in the 100 hurdles after crossing in 16.87.

Watkins admitted “honestly, this season is amazing. I’m super blessed to be on such an amazing team with such sweet girls. It’s amazing. I’m just happy we got runners-up.

“Sure, we wanted to be in first, but we’re still runners-up and that’s really good. I’m real happy with how things turned out this weekend.”

Someone else who was more than happy with the way things progressed during the two-day meet was Rebel boss Rick Haught, who watched Charlie Morris throw 44 feet, 2 inches to take runner-up in the shot put after he had the same finish on Friday in the discus.

Ritchie County’s Chase Morris placed second in the shot put. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

On Saturday, fellow Rebel senior Kellen Cress placed sixth in the 400 (52.23) behind state champion Tyler Smith (50.63) of Wirt County, third-place Tiger Kaedon Sees (51.86) and fourth-place Holden Misel (52.05) of Wood County Christian, while also finishing fourth in the 110 hurdles (16.09), runner-up in the 300 hurdles (40.34) and fourth in the long jump (19-9.5).

Ritchie County finished with 99 points as Wahama (123.5) took the championship plaque back to Mason County.

“The last couple of weeks we talked about how special it is to be on Laidley Field at the end of the meet and I’m happy for the kids,” said Haught, who also got solid efforts on Saturday from Hunter Seese (3rd, 1600, 4:37.32), Ayden Pittman (4th, 200, 23.37), Landen Bartlett (5th, 200, 23.73), Jenner Stewart (7th, 800, 2:06.36; 6th, 1600, 4:40.65) and Noah Shoemaker (6th, 300H, 42.34). “I’m really proud of my seniors.

“We scored in 16 of 18 events, and one of those events we didn’t have somebody qualified in. Every kid in every event contributed. We had no state champions, but we still scored 99 points. I think everybody that stepped on the track competed well and gave us their best performance and you can’t ask for more than that, and a group of kids to come together like that and have a strong finish.”

Obviously, both Morris and Cress would’ve liked for things to go a little differently, but they were content about their season efforts.

Ritchie County’s Kellen Cress placed fourth in the 110 meter hurdles. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

“It’s been awesome,” said Morris. “I mean a great group of guys that I’ve got to experience this with. It was very cool coming down here and being able to get second and second.

“I would’ve liked to leave with firsts, but with the weather we had we all did a good job, and I couldn’t be more proud of the guys I’ve been with.”

Cress echoed that sentiment.

“I was hoping for a little better, but you know you can’t complain with runner-up,” said the Rebel. “We were hoping for first, but can’t complain. We got a good group. It’s a young group. They’ll be back here next year and hoping to hold up that first place.

“It’s been great. We got coach Haught. He’s an amazing coach. He’s been here for 30, 40 years. He knows what he’s doing. We’ve got great facilities. It’s a great team, great program and we’re always down here and put a good team together.”

St. Marys’ Laney Watkins crosses the finish line in the 200 meter dash. (Photo by Jordan Holland)

Smith also finished his senior campaign for the Tigers with a 22.86 effort in the 200, which was good for third.

Charleston Catholic (74), St. Marys (71) and East Hardy (70) rounded out the top five team scores for the boys. Wirt County (29) placed ninth and Wood County Christian was four points off the pace and took 10th.

The Blue Devils had individual placers thanks to Bryce Bills (8th, 800, 2:07.00; 2nd, 1600, 4:35.45), Desmond Parks (800, 3rd, 2:03.48) and Deion Mosley, whose heave of 39 feet, 10 inches was good for sixth in the shot put and just behind fifth-place Hunter Cooley of Magnolia’s 40-2.25.

The SMHS boys of head coach Steven Nutter also won the 4×2 (Xxavier Cunningham, Eli Cox, Noah Russell, Max Dauch: 1:34.00) and closed out the meet with a victorious time of 3:32.87 in the 4×4 with Russell, Parks, Tristan Murner and Dauch.

WCC’s Koa Navarro, who won the 3200 on Friday, was fifth in the 1600 (4:39.78) while Blue Eagle Riley Dennis placed seventh (4:41.24).

Wirt County’s Byron Long receives the baton from teammate Tyler Smith in the 4x400 meter relay. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Wildcat Holden Misel ran a 2:04.55 to take fourth in the 800.

Calhoun County’s Kyrian Mounts had just enough to place in the long jump as the Red Devil picked up a point after a leap of 18 feet, 9 inches.

In the team race for the girls, Charleston Catholic (62), Clay-Battelle (46) and Wahama (42) comprised the top five. Gilmer County’s 41 points were good for sixth, Magnolia placed eighth (36), Ritchie County tied for 10th (31.5) and Wood County Christian finished 12th (25.5).

Also securing individual placement from the area for the girls were Gilmer County’s Ava Dobbins (2nd, high jump, 4-10), Airiana Hoard (5th, long jump, 15-5.75), Paige Sterns (7th, 800, 2:38.55; 5th, 1600, 5:51.04) and Kadessa Stitt (4th, 300H, 49.23; 4th, high jump, 4-8); Magnolia’s Jessa Anderson (3rd, long jump, 16-1.25; 5th, 100H, 17.26), Bella Sockman (2nd, 100, 12.81; 3rd, 200, 25.80) and Leah Hartline (5th, high jump, 4-8); Wood County Christian’s Sabena Stewart (5th, shot put, 31-2.5) and Amber Perkins (3rd, 1600, 5:43.05); Ritchie County’s Morgan Morris (2nd, shot put, 31-8) and Parkersburg Catholic’s Bryley Starkey (8th, shot put, 30-3.5).

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com