ELKINS — Sammi Sproul led the way for the Elkins High School girls with an 11th-place finish in the Mountain State Forest Festival cross country Invitational held on Saturday.
The senior covered the muddy 3.1 mile Davis & Elkins College course in 24:06.
“Sammi sets the standard for our girls right now,” said EHS coach Scott Biola. “We’ve just got to work on closing the gap between her and the rest of our pack.”
Other scorers for the Lady Tigers included Raighan Hall Carte (34th, 26:52), Delia White (35th, 27:03), Mallory Bennett (37th, 27:10) and Mya Mendelson (38th, 27:18).
Cathryne Tenney took third place in the junior varsity competition for Elkins in a time of 33:16.
Doddridge County’s Alexis Lamb won the race in a time of 20:57 to help lead the Lady Bulldogs capture the team competition with 42 points. Buckhannon-Upshurwas second with 66 points.
Other complete teams included Braxton County with 72 points, Tucker County (98), Philip Barbour (107), Ritchie County (136) and Elkins (145).
Lydia Falkenstein placed second overall in a time of 21:31 to lead the Lady Bucs, while Alayna Grassi was ninth (23:47) to pace the Lady Colts and Katie Hicks (23:42) and Erin Chambers (23:57) seventh and 10th, respectively, for the Lady Mountain Lions.
On the boys side, Tyler Burda and Gavin Brown earned medals for Elkins with eighth and 13th- place finishes, respectively. Burda clocked a 20:51, with Brown not far behind in 21:24.
Bobby Valentine (23rd, 22:27), Aaron Knight (24th, 22:42) and Andres Masten (30th, 22:59) rounded out the Tigers’ top five.
In boys JV action, Preston Nixon finished second in 25:25.
“The boys team had a great effort today,” said EHS Coach Amanda Carter. “Once again …tough competition, but the boys rose to the challenge and battled it out to the end.”
Lewis County’s Slate Swiger bested the field on the boys side with a time of 18:32.
B-U took top honors as a team with 34 points, followed by Doddridge County (76), Lewis County (84), Elkins (97), Ritchie County (123), South Harrison (139), Tucker County (152) and Lincoln (178).
The Bucs had three runners among the top five as Jordan Gillum was second (19:16), Jack Waggy third (19:44) and Reis Leonard fourth (20:15).
Cameron Judy placed 17th (21:52) to lead the Mountain Lions.
Elkins, B-U and Philip Barbour are scheduled to take part in the Big 10-Cardinal Conference Challenge Saturday at Preston High School.
The girls are slated to take the course at 5 p.m. and the boys at approximately 5:30 p.m.
