The SMHS cross country team put a quite a show on their own home course on Thursday afternoon. They hosted the Little Kanawha Conference Championships the Lady Devils captured the conference’s girls’ crown while the Blue Devils were the runners among the conference boys’ teams.
The St. Marys girls battles up their way to a seven-point to the 55-62, victory over one of her biggest rivals and the team favored to win the title, the Lady Yellowjackets from Williamstown. The Blue Devil’s boys faced several of the top teams in the state including: Doddridge, Williamstown, Tyler Consolidated and Ritchie County. They fell short of getting the best of the Bulldogs from West Union but easily ran past the other runners on the other teams, mentioned to claim the LKC runner-up trophy.
The Lady Devils also placed two runners on the LKC all-conference first unit and two on the second team. Anna Bennett was the runner up in the girls race which was just four seconds hidden by individual champion Cassie Sites of Williamstown. Sites had an 18:54 clocking and Bennett crossed the stripe in a time of 18:58. Savanah Burd crossed in the No.7 position with a time of 20:23. The second team All-LKC Lady devils were Maddie Smith who came in 14th (21:24) and Brooklyn Davis came in 23rd with a time of 22:30. St. Marys 5th and final scoring place was Mariah Whitlock, who barely missed the all-conference by one place. She finished in 25th with the time of 22:41. Sydni Gerlach rounded out the girls squard, placing 28th in 22:51.
The Blue Devils boys’ were led by two first team all-conference runners with Bryce bills placing in third in the 16:10 and Parker Barnes crossing in eighth in 16:49.5. Making second team ALL-LKC were Desmond Parks in 13th in 17:05 and Noah Mote in 19th in 17:36. Wyatt Payne just missed making the all-conference squad placing 25th in 17:51. St. Marys scored 67 points while the bulldogs placed four completions in the top 10 to cruise to the conference title with a winning score of 46. The blue devils will now get ready for the WVSSAV class A Region I championship meet, which they will host Saturday on the SMHS campus. Little Kanawha Conference Cross Country Championships Girls Team Scores:1 St. Marys 55,2 Williamstown 62,3. Braxton 71,4. Buffalo 93.5. Wirt County 114,6. Ritchie county 137,7, Tyler Consolidated 155, incomplete team: Ravenswood, South Harrison, Calhoun County, Clay County, Roane County, Poca and Webster County.
