The opening race of the day featured Ravenswood shooting for an unprecedented 5th title in a row. The entered the meet as the prohibitive favorites. Individually, Andrew Benford was expected to take his first title after finishing second for brother Adam in last year's race.

At the mile mark, numerous people were still in contention, with Scott's Jose Schultz leading the group through the first mile. Included in the lead group were Schultz, Ravenswood's Andrew Benford, Ritchie's Michael Hardbarger, Richwood's Tim Jones, Grafton's Brandon Miles, and Braxton's Jarren Morlan at the least. Teamwise, Ravenswood and Scott looked to be in good position.

At the two-mile mark, the lead pack had shrunk to three. Andrew Benford, Tim Jones, and Michael Hardbarger passed the two mile at approximately 10:16. Brandon Miles wasn't far off the pace. In the team race, it appeared that Ravenwood had started to take control. It was also at this point that I realized my camera batteries were dead. There will not be many pictures from the State Meet this year.

As the runners came back into sight, Andrew Benford had opened a gap on his competitors, with Tim Jones and Michael Hardbarger holding their spots. At the finish line, it was Benford holding off Jones who managed to close the gap to 5 seconds by the finish line. Hardbarger and Brandon Miles easily held onto 3rd and 4th, respectively. The front four each came in at under 16:45. No one else was within 20 seconds. Jarren Morlan easily held onto the 5th spot. A late charge by Liberty Harrison's John Natow pulled him from 11th into 6th. Poca's Matt Null won a dash to the finish with Ritchie's Straten Schemel for 7th and 8th place, respectively. Oak Glen's Brian Wilson edged Winfield's Zach Noel for 9th. In the team competition, Ravenswood ran away with the title in the 3rd mile, managing to place three runners in front of Scott's first.

I could go a couple ways in the MVP selection for this race. Richwood had a couple standout performances by Tim Jones and Zach William that helped move them from a predicted 9th place finish to 7th. However, to me, it's more significant to move from 5th to 3rd, as Ritchie County did, and Ritchie's move came at the hands of a pair of runners. One moved up slightly more than the other, but it was their move in tandem that took them from 5th to 3rd and within striking distance of 2nd. That pair is Cody Mills and Chuck Richards. Richards had been predicted to finish 49th and Mills 50th. Mills crossed the line in 33rd, followed immediately by Richards in 34th. In the process, their combined team score of 51 was 24 points less than their predicted combined team score of 75. That 24 points was instrumental to Ritchie's rise in the ranks.

Teamwise, we got the first two teams correct with Ravenswood and Scott. Ritchie climbed a couple spots to 3rd, Charleston Catholic climbed a spot into 5th, and Richwood climed two places into 7th. Individually, only 6 of our predicted top ten managed to get their All-State spot. We did get 13 of the top 15, and successfuly picked 20 of the top 25. The four runner's who stepped up to snare All-State spots were Richwood's Tim Jones (predicted 16th, got 2nd), Liberty Harrison's John Natow (predicted 13th, got 6th), Poca's Matt Null (predicted 14th, got 7th), and Oak Glen's Brian Wilson (predicted 15th, got 9th). Those who climbed into the top 25 were PikeView's Jonathan Yost (predicted 29th, got 21st), Charleston Catholic's Andrew Gush (predicted 28th, got 22nd), Lincoln's Justin Coughlin (predicted 37th, got 23rd), Richwood's Zach Williams (predicted 47th, got 24th), and St. Marys' Chad Taylor (predicted 33rd, got 25th). The big mover for the day was Independence's Derek Bishop who had been predicted to finish 52nd and climbed all the way to 26th.

We offer our congratulations to the Ravenswood boys. You've achieved the level of Dynasty at this point, and you can be sure that everyone will be targeting you next year.

We offer our congratulations to Andrew Benford. Coming back from a mid-season stress fracture only in time for the Regional, it's difficult to be in top racing form, but you did the necessary work to maintain your level of fitness, and you have a State Title to show for it.

We offer our congratulations to the boys who shook up our predictions. You prove what we try to tell people every year. Rankings and predictions mean very little in the grand scheme of things. Nothing is determined until the race is run.