ONA, W.Va. — The Frankfort girls captured the West Virginia Class AA cross country championship for the first time in school history Saturday at Cabell Midland High School.
Frankfort finished with 66 points, edging Braxton County and Lincoln by five points for the title. Its team score was made up by Bailey Furguson (third place, 20:23.15), Paisley Raines (sixth, 21:02), Hailey McBride (14th, 22:22.56), Bailey Harris (31st, 24:01.10) and Hannah Umstead (24:09.73).
The Frankfort boys were third behind champion Doddridge County and Lincoln. Gavin McDonald placed second in the race (16:51.52) for the Falcons, Eric Alexander was third (17:11.30), Johnny Jackson got 23rd (18:52.43), Porter Lott ended 35th (19:31.12) and Landon Duncan took 42nd (19:51.41).
The Keyser boys finished sixth in Class AAA led by Luca Altobello’s second-place position. He finished in 16:19.11.
Keyser’s Austin Umstot ended 43rd in 18:42.38, Reed Starcher placed 46th in 18:44.44, Landyn McGee finished 53rd in 18:50.19 and Don Starcher took 65th in 19:13.14.
Hampshire’s Wyatt Thorne was 16th, clocking a 17:31.93, and Ethan Richman finished two spots back in 17:35.15.
Elkins won the AAA boys title, and Bridgeport was the girls team champion.
The Keyser girls were 11th out of 12 teams.
Ava Barrick (23rd, 21:33.42), Mya Burgess (34th, 22:17.55), Hayleigh Haggerty (70th, 24:09.11), Ainsley Friend (83rd, 25:08.96) and Desiree Wilson (87th, 25:52.64) were the Golden Tornado’s top five finishers.
Hampshire’s Bailey Nichols placed eighth in 20:03.89, and Piper Dawson took 30th in 21:55.73.
In Class A, East Hardy had five runners place in the top 60 individually.
In boys, Jonathan Montgomery was 54th (20:39.03), and Shaye Barb (40th, 26:32.61), Brianna Hamilton (45th, 27:34.93), Danielle Funkhouser (52nd, 28:30.23) and Madison Cowgill (60th, 34:36.99) did so in girls.
University won the Class AAAA boys team title and Cabell Midland won the girls. The Charleston Catholic boys and St. Marys girls were the Class A champions.
The individual race winners were University’s Micah Gainer (15:56.16) and Wheeling Park’s Brenna Tipson (18:16.89) in Class AAAA; Elkins’ Trevor George (15:57.82) and Herbert Hoover’s Maysen Fletcher (18:16.36) in AAA; Tyler Consolidated’s Amos Kimble (16:32.76) and Ravenswood’s Riley Sotomayer (20:15.14) in AA; and Charleston Catholic’s Peter Basdekis (16:54.78) and Arabella Boggs (19:55.40) in Class A.