The second race of the day expected to hold little suspense as to who would win the team championship, but the individual race was expected to be a good one between three-time defending champion Jessica Taylor and number one ranked Sherri Flohr. Flohr had gotten the better of Taylor on two separate occasions this year, but today was not going to be one of those days. Taylor grabbed control from the beginning and continually stretched the lead into a 30 second victory. At the bottom of the main hill, Taylor had already grabbed her lead. Flohr was running in second with Missy Spangler, Heather McDaniel, and Jennifer Povick trailing close behind. At about the 1 3/4 mile point, it had become clear that this was Taylor's day as her lead seemed insurmountable. Missy Spangler had just taken the second spot away from the ailing Flohr. Povick had climbed into the fourth spot while McDaniel led a pack that included Theresa Melko and Erin Boggs. As they came out of the woods and across the water, Taylor had no reason to look back. Spangler still held second, and Flohr had maintained third. At the finish line, it was Taylor with her fourth consecutive title. Spangler maintained the runner-up spot, and Flohr kept her third position. Jennifer Povick crossed at the fourth place finisher as a nice warm-up for her evening Regional Soccer Championship match. Bridgeport's Theresa Melko used a strong second half to take the number five position. Charleston Catholic's Sally Mohler did the same to claim sixth, moving up from ninth place at the 1 3/4 mark. PikeView's Marian Brooks moved into the seventh spot. Grafton's Heather McDaniel held on for eighth. Braxton's Erin Boggs snared the ninth finishing position. The all-state team was rounded out by St. Marys' Deidre Wilson. The team end of things was, as expected, not close. Grafton again battered the field with a low total of 36 points. The surprises came in the form of Ritchie County and Frankfort, who had been slated to take fourth and sixth, respectively. Ritchie not only took second, but took it resoundingly, finishing 29 points ahead of Frankfort. Frankfort climbed from their projected fifth place finish to take 10 and 11 point wins over Sissonville and Charleston Catholic. This was Grafton's second straight crushing victory, and the bad news for the rest of the field is that all seven varsity runners return next year. The RunWV MVP for the A-AA 2000 State Championship is...well, it's a tie. The first half of the award goes to Ritchie County's Holli Haddox. Haddox climbed 23 places from a projected 40th place finish into 17th place. In the process, she picked up 15 team points to help Ritchie County's triumphant run into second place. The second half of the award goes to Frankfort's Lyndsay Shaffer. Shaffer also climbed 23 places from a projected finish of 41st into and actual finish of 18th. She also claimed 15 team points to aid in Frankfort's suprising run into third place. Congratulations to Jessica Taylor, 4 Time State Cross Country Champion, to Grafton's girls, two-time defending champion, and to Holli Haddox and Lyndsay Shaffer.

So, how did RunWV do on our predictions? Well, we nailed the team champion (gee...that was tough). We missed the individual champion as our pick finished third (in our defense, Flohr was battling illness). 9 of our top 10 finished in the top 10, 13 of our top 15 finished in the top 15, and 19 of our top 25 finished in the top 25 (one of those did not finish, and may not have even started). We offer our congratulations to Deidre Wilson for jumping into the top 10. Congratulations to Natasha Sheme and Tia Lafferty for climbing into the top 15. Congratulations to Ritchie's Kristina Watson, Holli Haddox, and Megan Walker, to Frankfort's Lyndsay Shaffer, and to Grafton's Megan Docherty for taking those top 25 spots. The big mover on the day was again a tie. Holli Haddox and Lyndsay Shaffer are joined by Shaffer's teammate Jojo Small in moving up 23 places from their predicted finish to their actual finish. On the team end of things, we did get Grafton right, but things went downhill after that. Our number four and six took second and third, while our second and third took fourth and fifth.