The AAA Girls opened the day's events. With a setting of snow flurries and a dusting of snow on the ground, mental preparedness was going to play as much a part in this year's event as physical preparedness. The gun sounded and the pack was off. RunWV's first checkpoint was at the bottom of the first major hill. The first athlete to reach that point was Fairmont Senior's Kayla Wolfe. She was followed by Morgantown's Leah Erenrich and Elkins' Zaia Wharton. By the mile mark Erenrich and Wharton had surpassed a closely trailing Wolfe. At roughly 1.8 miles, after coming off the hill and running past the crowd, Zaia Wharton had taken control of the race, opening a fairly substantial gap on Erenrich and Wolfe. Elkins' Erika Thompson and East Fairmont's Lori Burton had moved were rounding out the top 5, with Maria Stover, Ashley Varian, Kristal Hardway, Shannon Tobias, and Stephanie Hatfield in the top 10. Between the two creek crossings, a major shift occurred. Zaia Wharton still controlled the race, but Kayla Wolfe had moved into second place with Erika Thompson in third and Lori Burton in fourth. Maria Stover had climbed into fifth, followed by Ashley Varian, Kristal Hardway, Shannon Tobias, Stephanie Hatfield and Leah Erenrich. At the final creek crossing, Zaia Wharton was holding roughly a 10 second lead over Kayla Wolfe, who held a small gap over Erika Thompson. Maria Stover had moved into fourth, Lori Burton was holding fifth, Ashley Varian was in 6th, Kristal Hardway had 7th, Shannon Tobias was in 8th, Stephanie Hatfield was in 9th, and Christy Ashley was holding 10th. The last half mile featured several changes. Zaia Wharton was able to cling to her victory over a closing Kayla Wolfe, 21:34 to 21:37. Erika Thompson kept her third place. Kristal Hardway used a very strong last half mile and an outstanding finishing kick to climb in to fourth. Lori Burton held on for a surprising fifth. Leah Erenrich shook off her side stitch and moved back up to sixth in that last half mile. Maria Stover held on to seventh. Stephanie Hatfield moved up to eigth. Ashley Varian gave Elkins 3 All-State performers with her 9th place finish. Shannon Tobias held on for a 10th place finish to claim the final All-State spot.

In the team competition, 3 All-State Runners along with two others in the top 25 left little doubt that Elkins would rule the day. The left the competition way behind with their low point total of 40. Morgantown claimed an easy 2nd place with 78 points, and Fairmont Senior grabbed an easy third with 115 points. The battle for fourth was the really fun one to watch. Only 5 points separated 4th from 7th. Cabell Midland took the fourth spot with 143, East Fairmont scored 144, Preston scored 147, and Parkersburg scored 148. The RunWV MVP for the AAA Girls 2001 State Meet is Cabell Midland'sAmanda Wright. Amanda came through in 23rd place, which was only 9 places higher than expected, but what an important 9 places. Had she run in 32 place as she had been picked, Cabell Midland would have fallen to 7th from 4th, a substantial difference in the team standings. Congratulations to Zaia Wharton, the Elkins girls, and Amanda Wright.

So, how did RunWV do on our predictions. We correctly called the top two in the team scoring, but things certainly fell apart after that. Our number 3 got 7th, our number 8 got 6th, our number 6 got 8th. Things just got all shook up. Individually, we missed the champion. Only 6 of our top 10 finished in the top 10. 11 of our top 15 finished in the top 15, and only 18 of our top 25 finished in the top 25. We congratulate those runners who broke through and claimed those 8 top 25 spots that we missed: Shannon Tobias for moving into the top 10, Rebekah Clark, Meredith Fotta, Brandy Schaeffer, Katie Burda, Amanda Wright, and Seegee Kisner for climbing into the top 25. Our biggest mover of the day was Morgantown's Kayleigh Davis who was picked to finish 77th and moved all the way up at 50th, good for a 27 spot improvement.

All-in-all, not our most shining moment in prediction history. Of course, we knew the weather would wreak havoc on the predictions. It becomes much more of a mental game, and it's difficult to know who is more able to battle the elements and who is not.