Herbert Hoover freshman Maysen Fletcher managed to dethrone Williamstown senior Alyssa Sauro during Saturday’s Chick-fil-A Invitational at the Wood County 4-H Grounds in Mineral Wells. Sauro, who was going for a four-peat, was nipped 17:35 to 17:37.(Photo by Jay W. Bennett)
MINERAL WELLS — Milesplit’s nationally top-ranked thinclad Ty Steorts of Hurricane made the most of his second and final Chick-fil-A Invitational here Saturday morning at the Wood County 4-H Grounds by cruising to an easy victory with a time of 14 minutes and 56 seconds.
“The course was a little muddy out there, but it wasn’t bad,” admitted the two-time Mountain State Athletic Conference champion, who placed fourth in his only other appearance at the Chick-fil-A when he was a freshman. “It’s nice to just go for a stroll and get a win.”
Parkersburg South senior Josh Gill finished in exactly 16 minutes flat to claim runner-up ahead of Parkersburg junior Connor George, who was 1.9 ticks off his pace and helped the Big Reds of head coach George Angelos to the team title ahead of the Redskins, 89-111.
“I was looking to be a little faster, obviously, than what I was, but it’s no big deal really. I mean it was still a great race,” continued Steorts, who added his current top choices for the next level are Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Ole Miss, Tennessee and North Carolina. “The team is looking great.
“I think we got a lot to come and there’s going to be a lot of improvements that we’ll see throughout the rest of the season. This year, for me, I really just want to go out there and compete and just do the best I can. I mean I’ll just let the running talk, really.”
Following close runner-up finishes to Williamstown’s Alyssa Sauro during the first two meets of the season, Herbert Hoover freshman Maysen Fletcher broke through in a big way by nipping the Yellowjacket senior and denying her four-peat attempt, 17:35 to 17:37.
“It’s really nice. The competition and her to push me, and I feel like any race could go either way,” Fletcher said.
“I just wanted to go out hard and kind of stick with her and then see what I could do. Pretty much I just had some left in the tank and I left it out there.”
Preston’s girls, who were led by the sixth-place effort of Hallie Simmons (19:35), snapped Williamstown’s four-year run as Chick-fil-A champs by securing a 60-82 victory over Parkersburg, which was nine points better than the Yellowjackets.
“This is just fuel for my next race,” admitted Sauro, who added “the past couple of races I’ve kind of just had a plan to stay with her and so this race I was like trying to come up with a different race plan and I guess just kind of run my own race, but obviously now I know what kind of race plan to stick to.
“I’m happy with my effort and happy that I got to race people. It’s (the season) going pretty good. Our workouts have been really good in practice. I’m super proud of how we’ve been competing.”
Steorts, Gill and George were followed in the top 10 by Tyler Consolidated junior Amos Kimble (16:11), Preston senior Damian Rumer (16:17), Magnolia senior Landen Davis (16:18), Grafton senior Mj Niggemyer (16:20), Redskin classmate Mason Lewis (16:22), Ritchie County 12th-grader Dylan Malolepszy (16:23) and Keyser sophomore Luca Altobella (16:25).
Gill was more than content with finishing second to Steorts.
“This is my third ever 5K,” said Gill. “I started track last year and when I did my first ever 2-mile it was against him. You know that’s a he– of a person to start out with when you are new to the sport. I expected it to be a little flatter, I’ll be honest. I heard a lot of people say it’s a PR course and I did PR.
“Bottom of the hills, pretty sloppy. The first hill, specifically, right when you are coming up that turn I tripped there the first time actually. I tripped up a little. I was able to catch my balance, but I took a different route the second time coming through.”
Parkersburg seniors Walker Jones (12th, 16:39), Christian Rutherford (15th, 16:47), Lucas Jenkins (28th, 17:13) and junior Ricardo Salazar (31st, 17:29) were the Big Reds’ other scorers.
“I think it was a good day and perfect weather. We’re looking really good,” George said. “I think if we can just all stay healthy we’ll be a pretty good team. It was a good run. I had a good day.
“I ran a lot faster than I usually do. Today was a PR, like 10, 11 seconds. He (Steorts) is a machine. Very good runner. We (Gill) were together most of the time. It was just back and forth the whole time.”
Steorts and Lewis were joined in the team scoring by sophomore Paxton Haddox (17th, 16:50) as well as juniors Landon Kennedy (40th, 17:53) and Alex Sanders (49th, 18:13).
“Really excited about the ascent of our program,” stated coach Angelos, who watched Morgan Metz (5th, 19:02, SO), Katie Rutherford (17th, 20:45, SR), Calli Angelos (18th, 20:52, FR), Ellie Hines (23rd, 21:15, SR) and Audrey Wagoner (35th, 21:56, SO) lead the girls.
“My first year with the program was in 2021 and at the Chick-fil-A Invite our boys placed 11th and our girls varsity was incomplete, so I guess in theory we finished 23rd. Four years later, in all four races today, we finished first in three of the four and second in the other. With all divisions there were 23 ranked teams and we beat 22 of them. I’m just super proud of each athlete, coach, parent and everyone in the program. Today was a good day and I know we’re only going to get better into November.”
Following Fletcher and Sauro in the top 10 were Buckhannon-Upshur senior Samantha Shreve (18:32), Hurricane senior Ella Hardin (18:58), Metz, Simmons, Huntington sophomore Laurel Johnson (19:44), Williamstown 10th-grader Cassie Sites (19:44), Grafton freshman Addison Sole (20:00) and Doddridge County senior Bailey Holdren (20:01).
Area thinclads who cracked the top 40 for the girls included Ritchie County’s Bentlee Williams (11th, 20:03), Parkersburg South’s Jalyn Eddy (13th, 20:22), Doddridge’s Cassidy Cumberledge (22nd, 21:49), Williamstown’s Lexi Wynn (24th, 21:15) and Ava Lightfritz (31st, 21:35) as well as Big Red Brie Winans (38th, 22:09) and Patriot Lexi McKinney (39th, 22:12).
Other top 40 finishers for area boys featured Williamstown’s Julian Johnson (11th, 16:37), Tyler’s Travis Moore (13th, 16:42), Yellowjacket Frank Conner (14th, 16:44), South’s Gatlin McLain (19th, 16:54), ‘Jacket Will Coiner (25th, 17:04), Doddridge’s Samuel Gola (30th, 17:19), Silver Knight Brody Nice (32nd, 17:29), Bulldog Gunner Kimball (38th, 17:50) and Wirt County’s Matthew Balis (39th, 17:52).
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com
Today's breaking news and more in your inbox
