After about 3.5 inches of rain on Friday, Friday Night, and into the early morning hours on Saturday, a soggy, cold, windy course awaited the first race of the day. Fortunately for them, the conditions of the course were as good as they were going to be today. As with last year, we came in with strong favorites in the team and individual races, and as with last year, both pulled through with flying colors. Individually, Levi Grandt won by a whopping 22 seconds, and Ravenswood won in dominating fashion by 29 points for their 7th consecutive title.

At the gun, a runner I couldn't identify from a distance sprinted into the lead as the runners went out of site. When they came back into site at about 0.3 miles, Doddridge's Levi Grandt had taken the lead, followed closely by Winfield's Zac Noel.

My first real checkpoint was at the mile marker. The first mile of the course contains a hill that is about 300 meters long, making it the toughest mile of the course. At the mile, Levi Grandt had extended his lead to about 10 seconds, coming through in 5:26. Webster's Skyler McCoy had moved into 2nd, coming past in 5:36. Zac Noel was holding 3rd in 5:41. Things got pretty tight after that. The next group included Ritchie's Kyle Harris and Chuck Richards, St. Marys' Dustin Hall, Oak Glen's Brian Wilson, Berkeley Springs' Lenny Roach, and Tucker's Lucas Warner all crossing between 5:44 and 5:45. Ravenswood's Ben Wise crossed in 5:47, and Weir's Stewart Jones crossed in 5:48.

The next checkpoint was the two-mile marker. Levi Grandt had taken full control, now in front by 15 seconds as he came through in 10:53. Skyler McCoy had taken full control of 2nd, passing in 11:08. Ben Wise had made a strong move into 3rd, passing in 11:18. Dustin Hall and Stewart Jones passed in 11:20. Zac Noel was holding 6th in 11:26, just ahead of Brian Wilson and Lenny Roach who came through in 11:27. Kyle Harris and Lucas Warner crossed in 11:32 rounding out the top 10 at that point.

At the finish, Levi Grandt had further pulled away from the field, stretching to a 22 second victory in 16:45. The time tied for the 10th fastest ever on the course despite the standing water and the mud. Skyler McCoy continued to extend his hold on 2nd, crossing the line in 17:07. Ben Wise continued his push into 3rd, crossing in 17:21. Stewart Jones moved up to 4th, crossing in 17:26. Dustin Hall just outkicked Lenny Roach for 5th, each scoring a 17:28. Brian Wilson held 7th solidly in 17:37. Zac Noel held off Kyle Harris for 8th, 17:44 to 17:45. Lucas Warner rounded out the All-State squad with a run of 17:47. 11th place was over 15 seconds behind, as this group pulled further and further away from the field.

There was one team that made a substantial move up the Team Standing charts. That was Berkeley Springs. They were a projected 10th place team, and they came home in 6th place. No hardware involved, but a nice run regardless. Since the top 5 teams all finished where they were expected, I'm going into the Berkeley Springs lineup for my MVP. There was one runner who took a pretty significant step forward. He was predicted to finish 79th with 68 team points. He actually finished 65th with only 54 team points...a 14 point gain for his team. If he doesn't step forward, his team finishes 8th instead of 6th. The RunWV MVP for the Class A-AA Boys race is James Dimitroff.

So, how did RunWV do on the predictions? Pretty well. This turned out to be the best set of picks of the day. The top 5 teams finished in order, and only three teams moved more than 1 place up or down the standings. Individually, 9 of the predicted to 10 did indeed gain All-State Honors. 13 of the predicted top 15 finished in the top 15, and 21 of the predicted top 25 finished in the top 25. The runner who stepped in to take an All-State position was Ritchie's Kyle Harris (picked 11th, got 9th). The runners who joined the top 25 that were not predicted to do so were Tucker's David Rhodes (picked 33rd, got 19th), Frankfort's Johnny Macklen (picked 30th, got 22nd), Winfield's Matt Burton (picked 32nd, got 24th), and Wheeling Central's Sean Droginske (picked 43rd, got 25th). The big mover for the day was Ritchie's Tyler Sellers. He climbed 21 spots from a predicted finish of 52nd to an actual finish of 31st. In a look to the future, the top two Freshmen in the meet were Tucker's David Rhodes (19th), and PikeView's Jordan Weitzel (23rd).

I offer my congratulations to the Ravenswood boys. That's 7 in a row. What an amazing feat! Another year with bullseye's on your backs and another year where it just didn't matter. You continue to excel even as the faces and leaders of your team change. That's hard to do sometimes, but you've managed to do it year after year after year.

I offer my congratulations to Levi Grandt. You were dominant almost the entire season, losing only one meet in early September, frequently winning by large margins. You became only the 3rd person to run Doddridge's course under 17:00 and you did it twice. You cracked the 16:00 barrier at the Chick-Fil-A Invitational, winning that meet by 30 seconds. You earned a top-10 performance (since 1997 at least) on the course at Apple Valley. You won the rugged LKC (4 of 10 All-State spots) by 37 seconds. You took control of the State Meet early and never looked back. You show work the work ethic and desire of a champion, and today it paid off.

I offer my congratulations to the boys who shook up our predictions. You prove what I 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.