James Monroe teams advance
Oct. 19—Both James Monroe High School cross country teams have advanced to the state cross country championships next weekend.
On Thursday at the Class A Region 3 championship meet hosted by Charleston Catholic High School, each Mavericks squad finished as runner-up to champion Charleston Catholic in the team race, according to results from The Appalachian Timing Group via runwv.com.
In a thrilling team competition among the girls, the Irish and James Monroe were deadlocked at 33 points each through the scoring of five runners and were forced to go to the sixth runner to determine the champion. Catholic's sixth runner placed 21st overall and James Monroe's was 26th.
Richwood was third with 58 points.
The boys race was completely different. The hosts dominated, with the Irish's five scoring runners grabbing the top five finishing spots for a perfect team score of 15. To further their dominance, the Irish's two non-scoring runners placed sixth and seventh overall.
James Monroe qualified by placing second with 55 points, while Richwood (70) was third.
Charleston Catholic's Arabella Boggs was the girls champion with a clocking of 19 minutes, 57.1 seconds. James Monroe had four girls in the Top 10, led by Katie Collins, the runner-up at 21:38.7. Teammates following her in the Top 10 were Abby Dixon (fourth, 22:17.7), Kynzie Taylor (sixth, 22:58.7) and Gracie Tooze (seventh, 23:28.6). The Maverick's fifth scorer was Natalie Broyles (24th, 32:17.5).
Other state meet qualifiers included Summers County's Avery Lilly (fifth, 22:38.5), Richwood's Baylee Jarrett (eighth, 23:48.0) and Richwood's Sophie Mullens (10th, 24:18.2).
Charleston Catholic's Isaac Collins led the pack for the boys, crossing the finish line in 17:36.0.
Summers County's Dakota Pettry (19:32.3), James Monroe's Wyatt Lilly (19:44.6) and James Monroe's Eli Broyles (20:25.3) finished in spots 8-10 to qualify for the state meet as individuals.
Besides Lilly and Broyles, the Mavericks' other scorers were William Jackson (11th, 20:41.2), Bryceson Whitt (15th, 21:23.8) and Shane Arthur (22nd, 23:51.2).
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