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WEST UNION - Second ranked (Class AA) Raley Cochran outdueled Ritchie County freshman Layla Devereux over the final 400 meters to win the Doddridge County Invitational cross country meet Tuesday afternoon.
The junior covered the 3.1-mile course in 20 minutes, 58.99 seconds to eke out a 10 second victory over Devereux, who posted a 21:09.29 time.
"I pretty much expected it to come down between me and her (Devereux)," Cochran explained. "I made sure to keep close to her until that final hill and then I made my move."
Cochran led five Cougars in the race's top 10 finishers. Adalynn Milnes came in third (21:43.36) while Samantha Fitch, Kennedy Linville and Matty Drainer placed sixth, seventh and 10th as the top ranked (Class AA) Cougars captured the team title by a 21-34 margin over the Lady Rebels.
Tyler Consolidated finished third with 78 points.
Rounding out the Top 10 finishers was Gilmer County's Paige Sterns (4th, 24:04.12), Layla Findley of Heritage Christian (5th, 24:32.35), and Ritchie's Jayden Primm (8th, 25:28.08) and Charlee Haddox (9th, 25:41.84).
"We have a very competitive team," added Cochran. "We used this meet as a practice meet to get us ready for the Harrison County Championships."
The boys' race came down to a three-team race with Ritchie County eking out a one-point, 47-48, victory over the host Bulldogs. Lincoln tallied 58 followed by Heritage Christian (91), Tyler Consolidated (105) and Gilmer County (161).
"We are capable of doing many things," explained Rebels' head coach Holli Vaughan. "They all had great races. Jenner (Stewart), and Kenson (Roman) ran as expected but Seth (Cronin), Landon (Bartlett) and Linhang (Chen) all ran really well."
Tyler senior Travis Moore captured the individual title with a time of 18 minutes, 11.45 seconds while the Rebels' Stewart was second (18:32.97) and Lincoln's Carter Knight was third (18:37.74).
Rounding out the top 10 was the Bulldogs' Cory Swentzel (4th, 19:10.97), Samuel Goia (6th, 19:38.24) and Colton Key (7th, 19:49.75), Ritchie's Roman (5th, 19:24.18) and Cronin (10th, 20:18.97), Lincoln's Jonathan Folmsbee (8th, 20:04.83) and Tyler's Trey Moore (9th, 20:11.80).
"Today was a big confidence booster for us," explained Stewart. "We beat two ranked teams so it will give us confidence going forward."
In the middle school division the Rebels' swept both titles winning the girls' race by a 38-42 margin over Pleasants County and by a 41-81 score over Moundsville in the boys' race.