The A-AA Girls opened the afternoon session. While Grafton was expected to take the title, it did not have the dominating presence that it had held the previous two years. There were two other teams capable of beating them if things went the right way. The individual race on the other hand, was not expected to even be close. Sherri Flohr had dominated A-AA competition all season long. The ladies reached our first checkpoint at the bottom of the hill, and Flohr had already taken control, leading by over 10 seconds at this early stage. Theresa Melko was in 2nd, followed closely by Clara Grandt, Sarah Coyle, and Jennifer Povick. Near the mile mark, Sherri Flohr had extended her lead, and Clara Grandt had caught Theresa Melko. Moving on to the 1.8 mile point, Sherri Flohr was still in front, but the lead had actually diminished a bit. Clara Grandt had moved into 2nd place, followed closely by Sarah Coyle. Theresa Melko was in 4th, and Nicole Tingler had moved into 5th. Jennifer Povick was in 6th, with Jennie Spencer in 7th, Heather McDaniel in 8th, Sally Mohler in 9th, and Kristina Watson in 10th. Between the creek crossings, Sherri Flohr continued to hold her lead, while Clara Grandt had opened a gap on Sarah Coyle. Theresa Melko maintained her 4th place position, with Nicole Tingler in 5th and Jennifer Povick in 6th. Sally Mohler had made a move into 7th, with Jennie Spencer in 8th, Katrina Watson in 9th, and Heather McDaniel in 10th. At the final creek crossing, Sherri Flohr continued to lead, but her margin had shrunk even more, now roughly a 10 second gap over Clara Grandt. Grandt had extender her lead over Sarah Coyle, who held a substantial lead over Theresa Melko. Nicole Tingler had maintained her 5th place spot, Jennifer Povick was still in 6th. Kristina Watson had climbed into 7th, with Jennie Spencer in 8th, and Sally Mohler in 9th. Megan Taylor had climbed into the 10th position. At the finish line, Sherri Flohr was able to keep her 10 second margin and take home a much-deserved State Championship in 21:20. Clara Grandt finished a strong 2nd with a time of 21:30. Sarah Coyle claimed 3rd in 21:56. The races became tighter after that. Theresa Melko held onto 4th by 7 seconds over 5th place Nicole Tingler. Tingler held a 9 second advantage over the next position. This was the finish to watch, placed 6 through 9 were separated by less than one second, and the sprint to the finish featured a bump between two runners. Fortunately, neither fell, and they finished at the front of the sprint. Sally Mohler claimed the 6th position, with Jennie Spencer, Jennifer Povick, and Kristina Watson right on their heels. Megan Taylor took home the final All-State position. The team competition featured an upset, as Charleston Catholic used strong performances by its front five to knock off favored Grafton by 5 points. The remaining girls teams finished exactly as expected. We're going to split the MVP award between two members of the Charleston Catholic team. Lisa Slack will get the first half. She finished 20th after being picked 32nd, and picked up 9 team points for the Irish. Sally Mohler didn't move up as far, but she did it in more difficult territory. Her move from a 14th place prediction to a 6th place finish netted her team 7 team points. If either of these young ladies does not perform as well as they did, Charleston Catholic does not pull off the upset. Congratulations to Sherri Flohr, Charleston Catholic, Lisa Slack and Sally Mohler.

So, how did RunWV do on our predictions? We missed the team champion, with our 1st and 2nd place teams being reversed, but the remainder of the field finished just as they were supposed to. Individually, 8 of our top 10 finished in the top 10, 12 of our top 15 finished in the top 15, and 19 of our top 25 finished in the top 25. As in the AAA Boys, one of these runners did not finish the race after getting injured. So, we offer our congratulations to those runners who claimed the vacant top 25 positions: Laurel Thomas, Christina Sherrard, Lisa Slack, Britney Williams, Nicole Lemal, and Sara Sine. The big mover of Pendleton's Kasey Presley. Kasey climbed from a predicted 49th into the 35th position. That small 14 point maximum raise is indicative of one of our better sets of picks in our short history of doing this.