Frankfort excels at the Progressive Physical Therapy Invitational

Sep. 27—CUMBERLAND, Md. — Frankfort thrived both individually and as a team at the ninth annual Progressive Physical Therapy Invitational held on Tuesday at Allegany College of Maryland.

"We had a big meet on Saturday," Frankfort head coach Juan Phillips said. "To come back and run well with the times we had was exceptional. A lot of personal records, that's a good day."

The Falcons won the boys event and finished second in the girls.

The meet featured 15 schools in the boys race and 11 in the girls. It was co-hosted by Allegany and Fort Hill and included several area schools.

Along with the Campers and Sentinels, other area schools included Bishop Walsh, Hampshire, Keyser, Mountain Ridge, Northern and Southern.

"Competing against a lot of local schools is always important," Phillips said. "It spreads our name outside this small little area."

Catoctin, Martinsburg, Musselman, Paw Paw, Pendleton County, Preston, Salisbury Elk-Lick, Smithsburg and Spring Mills also competed.

In the boys race, Frankfort won with a score of 38, Catoctin was second at 92, Hampshire placed third with a 119 and Keyser finished fourth with a 141.

Southern had the next highest score among area schools, finishing ninth with a 243. Fort Hill took 10th place with a 247. Allegany and Martinsburg tied for 11th with a 271.

Bishop Walsh was 12th with a 306, Northern placed 13th with a 309 and Mountain Ridge finished 14th with a 311.

Frankfort placed three runners in the top 10. The Falcons were led by Ryan Hughes who won the race with a time of 16:11.

"Ryan is running like Ryan is capable of running," Phillips said. "This is the second race he's won, he won Saturday and came back and won today. He's looking comfortable, I'm very excited because he hasn't fully tapped into what he's capable of doing. To be able to run what he's doing is pretty exciting."

Paw Paw's Donavan Tanouye came in second. Luca Altobello of Keyser finished in fifth place and Wyatt Thorne of Hampshire placed sixth.

Frankfort's Gavin McDonald finished in seventh and Darius Gray was 10th.

In the girls race, Preston won with a score of 40 followed by Frankfort's 71. Hampshire placed third with a 115. Among area schools, Mountain Ridge had the next best score with an eighth-place finish at 201.

Northern finished ninth with a 213 and Keyser took 11th with a 227.

The Falcons' Addison Tharp won with a 19-minute flat time. It broke Mountain Ridge's Mary Delaney's meet record of 19:11 from last year.

"She really had a strong summer season of conditioning and put in all the hard work," Phillips said of Tharp. "It's been paying off this season. She's put herself as one of the top runners in the state."

Tharp's time was also nine seconds shy of the school record held by Katie Jan.

Jan ran cross country and track for four years at Navy. She was a second-team All-Patriot League runner in the 4x800m relay and distance medley relay for indoor track in 2017. At Frankfort, she won seven state titles in track.

"It's incredible for an athlete that wasn't a good runner and turned herself into a great runner," Phillips said.

Hampshire's Bailey Nichols finished fifth and Frankfort's Addison Lease took sixth.

Kamryn Rice of Fort Hill placed eighth.

The Falcons have had a lot of success recently as a team. Frankfort has finished with a top two score in both races in each of the last four meets.

"Success breeds success is one of the sayings," Phillips said. "The success of the reserve race is a big part. We lost a lot of seniors last year, to have the kids step up and fill those gaps is an important part. The varsity team did well, the reserve team did well so we hope we can continue the success."

Several teams will compete in Saturday's Paul Clovis Invitational hosted by Hampshire. It includes Frankfort, Keyser, Mountain Ridge and Southern.

"It's a much more difficult course than this course," Phillips said. "It's probably one of the harder courses in this area. Hopefully, weather conditions can be suitable because it can get challenging if the weather's not great."

Among the non-area schools, Elkins is expected to present the biggest challenge. The Tigers are ranked No. 5 in West Virginia for boys and No. 3 for girls.

"We beat them this past weekend, so to go over there and beat them again will be an important thing," Phillips said.

Jordan Kendall is a Sports Writer for the Cumberland Times-News. Follow him on Twitter @JKendallCTN.