The AAA Boys race closed the morning session. Some really strange things happened in this race. Cabell Midland was a strong favorite, but they had managed to keep secret a bout of walking pneumonia of their # 1 runner, Josh Holley. There were people running way better and way worse than they had all season. In the end, one team came through unscathed, and that was North Marion, who took the title by a large 21 point margin. Individually, the race did turn out pretty close as anticipated, and as anticipated, we ended the season with a Freshman as the top dog, as Fairmont Senior's David Ciarolla took home the title by a scant three seconds.

The fog was finally starting to lift and the temperatures were finally starting to rise, but hadn't hit 40 degrees yet. At the first checkpoint at roughly 0.6 miles, it was a Cabell Midland sweep of the top 3 spots. Cass Meadows, Josh Holley, and David Bias were running 1-2-3. Close behind was pretty much everyone else. There was very little separation at this point.

At the mile mark, Cabell Midland was still holding the top three spots, with their trio crossing right at 5:00. David Ciarolla and Parkersburg South's Brian Floyd were right on their tail in 5:01. Next through in 5:03 or so, were University's Eric Frohnapfel, George Washington's Nick Walsh, Musselman's Matt Rouzer, and Capital's John Underhill.

At the two mile mark, Cass Meadows and David Ciarolla had opened a small lead on the other top contenders. They came through together at about 10:25. David Bias came through in about 10:27. Josh Holley was still holding together at 10:29, with Nick Walsh and Eric Frohnapfel right behind in 10:30. Robert C. Byrd's Andrew Skidmore and North Marion's Ethan Harris were next to cross the marker in around 10:38. They were followed by Brian Floyd and University's Chris Cole, who had climbed into the top 10. Next through were Parkersburg South's Paul Conaway, Ripley Corey Waybright, and Wheeling Park's Ryan Beabout.

As they rounded the final corner, it was David Ciarolla with the lead. David Bias closed a bit down the stretch, but could not get within the 3 second final margin. Ciarolla crossed in 16:36 and Bias in 16:39. Cass Meadows held on for 3rd in 16:46. Nick Walsh held off Eric Frohnapfel by two seconds for 5th (16:52 and 16:54). University's Chris Cole climbed up to a 6th place finish, but just missed going under 17:00. A tight race to the finish saw Ethan Harris hold off a fast-finishing Corey Waybright from Ripley and Robert C. Byrd's Andrew Skidmore. Parkersburg South's Brian Floyd held on for the final All-State spot. It was after the finish that Josh Holley's health status was learned. He had collapsed somewhere after the two mile mark, a valiant effort by a Senior hoping to go out on top. Also of note is that only two of the All-State performers were Seniors. Class AAA should be alive and well next year.

When a team wins that was not expected to win, it seems obvious that the MVP should come from that team. As a result, North Marion also claims the MVP for the AAA Boys. 6 of North Marion's 7 finished above their predicted place. So, who was most responsible. I'm going with Thomas Carpenter, who moved from a predicted 32nd to an actual finish of 16th, picking up 15 team points along the way, a large portion of their winning margin.

How did RunWV do on the predictions? Well...sometimes if you don't have anything nice to say, you don't say anything at all. The team champion was not picked correctly. 4th and 5th swapped placed. The 8th place team moved all the way up to 6th. Individually, only 7 of the predicted top 10 finished amongst the All-State performers. Only 10 of the predicted top 15 held one of those spots, and only 17 of the top 25 held one of those spots. This is posibly one of the worst sets of predictions we've ever published. Oh well. That, folks, is why we run the race. The three that climbed into the top 10 to claim All-State honors were University's Eric Frohnapfel (picked 12th, got 5th), University's Chris Cole (picked 14th, got 6th), and North Marion's Ethan Harris (picked 15th, got 7th). Those that climbed into the top 25 were Nitro's Seth Easter (picked 40th, got 14th), Preston's Craig Pritt (picked 41st, got 15th), North Marion's Thomas Carpenter (picked 32nd, got 16th), Cabell Midland's Michael Dearing (picked 29th, got 18th), Hedgesville's John Windle (picked 55th...yeah 55th, got 19th), Hampshire's Michael Shanholtz (picked 37th, got 22nd), Jefferson's Neil Whitesell (picked 27th, got 23rd), Parkersburg South's Paul Conaway (picked 26th, got 24th). The big mover of the day was, of course, Hedgesville's John Windle who climbed 36 places from 55th to 19th.

We offer our congratulations to the North Marion boys. You toed the line with confidence that you could win. You ran the race with the intensity it takes to win, and in the end you performed above and beyond expectations to bring the title home.

We offer our congratulations to David Ciarolla. You sat atop the rankings for almost the entire season, yet you still had many doubters who refused to believe that a Freshman could win. You refused to listen and continued to train for strength beyond your years. You earned this title with your work ethic.

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 don't mean anything. That's why we run the race.