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PARKERSBURG -- Albeit early in the cross country season, both Parkersburg head coach George Angelos and Parkersburg South head man Brian Blanc are happy with the results following the opening two weeks.
PHS senior Morgan Metz, who earned all-state honors each of the past two seasons, has started off the campaign with back-to-back wins.
The Big Reds opened the year two weeks ago at the Riverside Cornfield Crawl Invitational where both the boys and girls came out victorious.
Metz won the title while and was followed by runner-up and sophomore teammate Hadley Edwards. PHS placed all five of its runners in the top 12 thanks to seniors Audrey Wagoner (5th) and Allison Poole (10th) along with junior Calli Angelos (12th).
Despite not having senior Carter Thorpe available for the opener, the Big Reds also topped the field. The red and white placed all five runners in the top 10 thanks to sophomore champion Drake Rollins, lone freshman Harlan Wolfe (3rd) along with sophomores Calvin Lantz (5th) and Aiden Romine (8th) as well as junior Rogan Mincks, who finished seventh.
Coach Angelos' program stepped it up a notch in competition last weekend at the Glen Oak Golden Eagle Invitational in Canton.
Metz topped the field while Wagoner finished 26th to help PHS place sixth overall.
Parkersburg's boys came in fourth and were led by top 20 efforts from Thorpe (13th), Rollins (16th) and Lantz (19th).
"We went to a big one in Canton," admitted Angelos. "The boys are ranked third in the state and the girls are sixth. In the boys we lost four varsity runners and have gained one freshman varsity runner. It's the second year in a row where that's happened. The girls lost three varsity runners and gained zero new freshmen and are still in the top six. Just a huge credit to kids getting better and the team is still in the top handful of teams in the state.
"Just internal development. Just really excited. Super pleased with how our kids have looked. Super pleased with the summer they had and just the development of kids within the organization. We just keep staying in the top handful of teams in the state when on paper you would think we should take a step back, but it's just the development of the kids. I love how we are running."
Obviously, that includes Metz who has improved from a 42nd place showing at the state meet as a freshman to placing fifth as a sophomore and third in 2025.
"She's running super and really when you think about it she's raced over 30 schools and over 275 individuals and come out on top twice, so she's looking really strong," Angelos said. "Just excited about the rest of the year."
Parkersburg South junior Gatlin McLain just missed out on all-state honors a year ago after finishing 12th in Class AAAA.
The sophomore duo of Haley Raper and Alyssa McCrady, who finished 15th and 22nd, respectively, at last year's state meet have led the way for the girls.
PSHS opened its season two weeks ago at the Autumn Classic in St. Marys where both teams placed fourth. McCrady (12th) and Raper (14th) had the top finishes for the girls while McLain placed 11th and was followed by freshman Joshua Eddy in 21st.
During last week's Chick-fil-A Huntington-Wayne Invitational, both the Patriot girls and boys brought home team runner-up honors.
Coach Blanc watched McLain (4th) and Eddy (16th) lead the way along with fellow scorers Slaten McLain (FR, 17th), Jesse Morris (SR, 28th) and Brady Deuley (33rd, FR). McCrady (4th) and Raper (7th) paced the girls as Jalyn Eddy (JR, 19th), Lexi McKinney (SR, 21st) and Genevieve Taylor (FR, 28th) followed.
"I'm very pleased with how the season is starting," admitted Blanc. "We have a nice sized roster this year. We have 18 freshmen on the roster I believe. The teams have a good mix of kids that are pushing each other every day in practice. They did a really good job of putting in that offseason work and coming into day one of the season just ready to go. We were able to take off on the first week and start doing serious workouts and start attacking the season instead of conditioning or anything like that.
"We were able to jump right into the real workouts as I like to call them. It's one of those deals where your individual efforts don’t always guarantee where you are going to wind up as a team. It depends on the year and how much other competition that there is. I'm happy to see their efforts pay off. I know they always push. It's just nice to see it finally paying off. Good to see the team effort start paying off with some team success."
In the current runwv.com power rankings, the PSHS girls are ranked one spot ahead of the Big Reds in fifth while the boys are tied for seventh with Hurricane.
"I think this is honestly just the beginning of what's going to be a very good season," added Blanc. "There are some freshmen that I think are going to feed off of them and learn very quickly how to attack a 5K. At practice every day they've got some young ones nipping at their heels and learning off of them.
"My overall vibe is just very positive. They show up every day ready to work and they are hungry for more success. They are willing to sacrifice whatever that means to get the success. A great group of kids to work with."
As much as Angelos would've liked to have had a big freshman class this season, that didn't materialize.
"It's always exciting when you have a rush of middle schoolers hitting your program, but we haven't had that the last several years," Angelos admitted. "Yet still it's internally getting better and has kept us in the top handful of teams in the state or kept us as contenders. We're excited about that. We're excited about how much better kids are getting in our program. We've added some really good runners, but we've also had a couple that chose to play other sports.
"It's really just kids doing the right thing during track, doing the right thing during the summer, doing the right thing during cross country, doing the right thing during the winter and then you just stack seasons and the kids are just getting better. Just really excited. Super pleased with how our kids have looked. Super pleased with the summer they had and just the development of kids within the organization."
Coach Blanc just wants his Patriots to stay on task and if that continues he feels both the boys and girls can be highly successful.
Parkersburg is set to return to action next Saturday in Mineral Wells for the 26th annual Chick-fil-A Invitational.
The Parkersburg South girls will have this weekend off, but the boys will be in action this Saturday before joining PHS at the Wood County 4-H campgrounds on Butcher Bend Road.
"It's the homecoming dance Saturday night," said Blanc. "We're going to bring nine of the boys down to run the night race at Cabell Midland.
"They are going to miss out on going to the homecoming dance so they can go down and do that night race."
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com