Doddridge County’s Tommy Walters-Hickman crosses the finish line in the 200 meter dash. (Photo by Jordan Holland)

CHARLESTON — Tommy Walters-Hickman was the top overall individual performer at this year’s Class AA state track meet, helping lead the Doddridge County boys to their second consecutive state championship.

Walters-Hickman, a junior, finished the meet with 34 points, better than any other individual athlete regardless of class or gender.

“He’s an amazing athlete and a great young man,” said Bulldogs head coach Bobby Burnside. “Works really hard. He missed a month to begin the season with the hamstrings and was able to come back. We broke two school records this weekend. The 400 was our record since 1994, and he broke his own long jump record. He’s just a really good athlete.”

Walters-Hickman was projected to finish third in the long jump, but utilized a new strategy which helped him hit 21 feet, 10.5 inches.

“We moved me back to a nine-step instead of eight, so I had a little more speed going into it,” Walters-Hickman said. “My last jump I just dipped low and got up high. I really wanted to win it because I couldn’t do it last year. They wouldn’t let me. I broke my wrist.”

Doddridge County’s Tommy Walters-Hickman won the state championship in the long jump. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Along with those 10 points, Walters-Hickman nabbed three runner-up finishes in the 100 (11.13), 200 (22.16) and 400 (48.92). Sissonville’s Connor Pritt was the winner in all three of those events.

Former Bulldog L.R. Sammons was the previous holder of the 400 record, which finally fell after more than three decades.

“I think I could’ve done a little better, but I was sore from the 4 still,” Walters-Hickman said. “Times weren’t the best, but we’ll come back next year and do even better.”

Doddridge County cleared runner-up Independence by 44 points (142-98), so Walters-Hickman was far from the only contributor.

For the second year in a row, the pole vault was a huge event for the Bulldogs. Trey McDonough captured the state title at 13-6, while teammates Tristan Swiger and Nathanael Lloyd tied for second at 13 feet. Last year, Swiger won the event with McDonough finishing second and Lloyd following in third.

Tyler Consolidated’s Amos Kimble celebrates after winning the 800 meter run. (Photo by Jordan Holland)

“That’s been our goal all year long,” McDonough said. “We don’t care how we finish as long as we get 1-2-3.”

Burnside added, “It’s a great trio. The same three guys were 1-2-3 last year, just in a different order.”

McDonough had missed his first two tries at 13 feet before clearing it on the third attempt. He was sitting in third at that point.

“I got on a new pole today from seven-step, so it felt pretty good,” he said. “I haven’t been on it at all this whole season. I blew through the two poles I’m normally on, so they didn’t work, so I moved back to a seven-step, got on a 14-foot, 170 and hit it.”

McDonough, Jerod Trent, Brycen Eidel and Noah Bodkin teamed up to finish third in the 4×4 (3:32.88) while Swiger, Will Adams, Lyric Blake and Jacob Riffle combined for a third-place finish in the 4×1 (44.26).

Doddridge County’s Nathanael Lloyd competes in the high jump. (Photo by Jordan Holland)

Swiger was also third in long jump (20-8) while Eidel was third in the 110 hurdles (16.05) and Cory Swentzel was fifth in the 1600 (4:39.15) for Doddridge, which scored in all 13 events on Saturday.

“Team’s awesome,” Walters-Hickman said. “It’s going to feel great. Just awesome. Everyone put in a lot of work to do it. Couldn’t do it without the whole team.”

After claiming the two-mile crown on Friday, Tyler Consolidated senior Amos Kimble became the Mid-Ohio Valley’s only triple-champion after winning the 800 and 1600 on Saturday.

Kimble won the mile with a time of 4:29.21, with teammate Travis Moore not far behind in third at 4:33.15.

Then later in the day, Kimble found himself trailing Williamstown’s Vincent Zegrea with about 100 meters to go in the 800. Kimble kicked it into high gear, catching up to Zegrea and beating him by a nose (2:00.30 to 2:00.35) to claim his third state title of the year and fifth of his career.

Williamstown teammates Vincent Zegrea, right, and Chase Pickering run side by side in the 800 meter run. (Photo by Jordan Holland)

“I was just pressing the ground as hard as I could that last 100,” Kimble laughed. “I usually start making my move with about 100 meters to go. It worked out — barely worked out, but I’ll take it.”

The event had a lot of local flavor as Doddridge’s Colton Key was third (2:02.65) followed by Williamstown’s Chase Pickering in fifth (2:04.09) and Moore in eighth (2:05.49).

“It’s my fifth track state championship and this one probably means the most,” Kimble said. “I’ve always tried to be a good 800 runner. Vincent’s a great runner. He ran a great race. I ran a great race. I’m happy with it.”

Williamstown didn’t have an individual winner on Saturday but still finished the weekend with 62 points to place fourth as a team. The Silver Knights, led by Kimble’s 31.5 points, came in sixth with 53.

However, there simply was no touching Doddridge County this year.

While waiting to receive the team trophy after the meet, Burnside was doused with water by some of his athletes, describing the feeling as “cold, but good.

“It’s real exciting. We felt like it was a really deep field. Some really great teams — Independence, Frankfort, Williamstown — a lot of teams and great competition. Across the board, it was an amazing weekend for us.”

Contact Jordan Holland at jholland@newsandsentinel.com.