MINERAL WELLS — Lightly clad Hurricane Ty Steault, the nation’s top-ranked mile splitter, put in a superb performance Saturday morning at the second and final Chick-fil-A Invitational Meet at Wood County 4-H Grounds, winning handily in a time of 14 minutes, 56 seconds.
“The course was a little muddy, but it wasn’t too bad.” The two-time Mountain States Athletic Conference champion and fourth-place finisher in his only appearance at Chick-fil-A as a freshman accepted his admission. “It’s nice to go out for a walk and win.”
Parkersburg South senior Josh Gill finished in exactly 16 minutes to take runner-up honors over Parkersburg junior Connor George, who finished 1.9 seconds slower than Gill but still helped head coach George Angelos’ Big Reds hold off the Redskins, 89-111, to win the team title.
“Obviously I was trying to go a little faster, but it’s no big deal. It was still a great race.” Steortz went on to name Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Mississippi State, Tennessee and North Carolina as his current top contenders to the next level: “The team is in great shape.
“I still have a lot of work to do and I think we’ll see a lot of progress throughout the rest of the season. This year, I just want to go out there, compete and do my best. I want to let the running do all the work.”
After finishing narrow runner-up to Williamstown’s Alyssa Sauro in the first two meets of the season, Herbert Hoover freshman Masen Fletcher made a big breakthrough by beating the Yellow Jacket senior by 17 minutes, 35 seconds and thwarting her attempt at a fourth straight title by 17 minutes, 37 seconds.
“It’s really amazing. My competitors and her have me backed, and I feel like I never know which way any race is going to go.” Fletcher said.
“I just wanted to run as hard as I could, keep up with her and see what I could do. I still had some energy left so I just gave it my all.”
Led by sixth-place finisher Hallie Simmons (19:35), the Preston girls team thwarted Williamstown’s record fourth consecutive Chick-fil-A championship with a 60-82 win over Parkersburg, nine points better than the Yellow Jackets.
“This is just fuel for the next race.” Sauro admitted, adding, “In the past few races, my only plan was to follow her, so this time I tried to come up with a different race plan and run my own race, but now I know what race plan to follow.”
“I’m happy with my efforts and happy to have competed against other athletes. This season has been going well. My training in practice has been really good. I’m very proud of my competitive achievements so far.”
Rounding out the top 10 following Steault, Gill and George were Tyler Consolidated High School senior Amos Kimble (16:11), Preston High School senior Damien Loomer (16:17), Magnolia High School senior Landen Davis (16:18), Grafton High School senior Mj Niggemeyer (16:20), Redskins High School classmate Mason Lewis (16:22), Ritchie County 12th grader Dylan Malolepsy (16:23) and Keyser High School sophomore Luca Altobella (16:25).
Gill was very happy with his second place finish behind Steorts.
“This is my third 5K race.” Gill said: “I took up athletics last year and the first time I ran two miles it was against him. If you’re new to the sport he’s the perfect person to start with. I was expecting a slightly flatter course to be honest. I heard a lot of people say it was a personal best course and I did a personal best too.
“It was pretty muddy at the bottom of the hill, especially on the first hill, coming up the curve, I actually tripped there the first time around. I kind of stumbled. I was able to get my balance back, but the second time around I took a different route.”
Parkersburg seniors Walker Jones (12′, 16’39’), Christian Rutherford (15′, 16’47’), Lucas Jenkins (28′, 17’13’) and junior Ricardo Salazar (31′, 17’29’) also scored for the Big Reds.
“It was a beautiful day and the weather was great. I’m feeling great.” “If we can all stay healthy, I think we’ll be a pretty good team,” George said. “We had a good flow. We had a good day.”
“I was able to run a lot faster than usual. Today was my personal best, 10, 11 seconds. He (Steortz) is like a machine. He’s a very good runner. We (Gil) were pretty much together. It was just back and forth the whole time.”
In addition to Steortz and Lewis, sophomore Paxton Haddox (17th, 16:50), junior Landon Kennedy (40th, 17:53) and Alex Sanders (49th, 18:13) also contributed team points.
“I’m really excited to see our program growing.” “I think we’re going to have a great time,” said Coach Angelos, who watched as Morgan Metz (5th, 19:02, SO), Katie Rutherford (17th, 20:45, SR), Kari Angelos (18th, 20:52, FR), Ellie Hines (23rd, 21:15, SR) and Audrey Waggoner (35th, 21:56, SO) led the girls’ team.
“My first year with the program was 2021 and the boys placed 11th at the Chick-fil-A Invitational and the girls varsity was incomplete so on paper I think we were 23rd. Four years later today we placed 1st in three of four and second in the other in all four races. We had 23 ranked teams in all divisions and beat 22 of them. I’m very proud of our athletes, coaches, parents and everyone involved with the program. It was a good day today and I’m sure we’ll get even better heading into November.”
Rounding out the top 10 following Fletcher and Saul were Buckhannon-Upshur High School senior Samantha Shreve (18:32), Hurricane High School senior Ella Hardin (18:58), Metts, Simmons and Huntington High School sophomore Laurel Johnson (19:44), Williamstown High School 10th grader Cathy Seitz (19:44), Grafton High School freshman Addison Saul (20:00) and Doddridge County senior Bailey Holdren (20:01).
Area sync grads finishing in the top 40 on the girls side included Ritchie County’s Bentley Williams (11th, 20:03), Parkersburg South’s Jalynn Eddy (13th, 20:22), Doddridge’s Cassidy Cumberledge (22nd, 21:49), Williamstown’s Lexi Winn (24th, 21:15) and Ava Lightfritz (31st, 21:35), as well as Big Red’s Bree Winans (38th, 22:09) and Patriot’s Lexie McKinney (39th, 22:12).
Other boys finishers in the top 40 for the region included Williamstown’s Julian Johnson (11th, 16:37), Tyler’s Travis Moore (13th, 16:42), Yellow Jacket’s Frank Conner (14th, 16:44), South’s Gatlin McClain (19th, 16:54), Jacket’s Will Coyner (25th, 17:04), Doddridge’s Samuel Gola (30th, 17:19), Silver Knight’s Brody Nice (32nd, 17:29), Bulldog’s Gunner Kimball (38th, 17:50) and Wirt County’s Matthew Burris (39th, 17:52).
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com.
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