The Class AA Girls opened the day's festivities. It was a chilly morning, but the course was in excellent shape. The team event was expected to be a Williamstown romp, and that's exactly what we got. Frankfort held off Elkins for the 2nd spot. Individually, it was expected to be a battle between Herbert Hoover's Maysen Fletcher and Williamstown's Alyssa Sauro with Fletcher given the edge and with Elkins' Emilia Tenney hoping to play the role of spoiler. What a great race we received on this one! Fletcher and Sauro ran within a stride of each other for nearly the entire race before Fletcher got about a five meter lead just before they hit the track, but Sauro made a run at it and closed up to right behind her as the came out of the final turn, but Fletcher had one more push left and took the title.

Unfortunately, I really messed on the camera work for this one as I had my camera on photo mode somehow. Since I was the one doing the camera work, I have no notes to go by either. All I can say for sure is that Maysen Fletcher led at the top of the hill at 4:02 with Alyssa Sauro right behind her at 4:03. I was able to obtain some footage from a litte bit past my normal spot from a kind parent from Williamstown. Fletcher and Sauro came through together. Frankfor'ts Addison Tharp was in 3rd about 16 seconds behind. Elkins' Emilia Tenney was in 4th another second back. Herbert Hoover's Jenna Brown was in 5th, 22 seconds off the lead. Williamstown's Lexi Wynn was in 6th 25 seconds back with Lincoln's Raley Cochran a second behind that. Grafton's Addison Sole and Frankfort's Bailey Ferguson were in 8th and 9th, respectively, each 27 seconds behind the leaders. Oak Glen's Lacey Cameron was in 10th, 28 seconds behind. Elkins' Julia Biola was in 11th, 32 seconds off the lead. Williamstown's Cassie Sites was in 12th 33 seconds behind with teammate Ava Lightfritz a second behind her. South Harrison's Savannah Holden was in 14th, 35 seconds behind the leaders with that time matched by Hampshire's Bailey Nichols and Keyser's Ava Barrick in 15th and 16th, respectively. Weir's Naomi Young was in 17th, 37 seconds behind the leaders. Shady Spring's Bre Crouse was in 18th, 44 seconds behind. Nicholas' Haley Johnson was in 19th, 45 seconds back, and PikeView's Carli Spade was in 20th, 48 seconds behind.

At the mile mark, my camera was still in photo mode. Again, Williamstown was able to come through with me for some good footage. Maysen Fletcher and Alyssa Sauro were still pretty much together with Fletcher having a slight lead and with both crossing at 6:07. Emilia Tenney had moved into 3rd at 6:23 with Addison Tharp in 4th at 6:26. Jenna Brown remained in 5th at 6:35. Lacey Cameron had moved up to 6th at 6:39 with Lexi Wynn Matching that time in 7th. Addison Sole was in 8th at 6:40, trailed closely by Raley Cochran in 9th at 6:41. Bailey Ferguson was in 10th at 6:42. Julia Biola was still in 11th at 6:43. Bailey Nichols had moved up to 12th at 6:47 with that time matched by Cassie Sites in 13th. Savannah Holden was in 14th at 6:48 with Ava Lightfritz matching that in 15th. Ava Barrick was in 16th at 6:50 with Naomi Young in 17th at 6:53. Haley Johnson was in 18th at 7:07. Frankfort's Paisley Raines had moved into 19th at 7:08, and Bre Crouse was in the 20th spot at 7:09.

At the extension building, my camera was still in phot mode. Maysen Fletcher continued to have a very slight lead over Alyssa Sauro with Emilia Tenney in full control of 3rd and Addison Tharp all alone in 4th. I'll update this if I get to watch a video that shows more.

At about 1.8 miles, I finally saw that the camera was in photo mode. The first two made it past before I got it fixed. It was still a duel with Maysen Fletcher holding a slight edge over Alyssa Sauro for the lead. Emilia Tenney was still in full control of 3rd with Addison Tharp in full control of 4th. That was all I could get before moging to the 2 mile mark.

At the 2 mile mark, the front two continued to duel with Fletcher still holding the slightest of leads with both at 12:18. Tenney was easily in 3rd at 12:34. Tharp was easily in 4th at 13:05. Julia Biola was at the front of a pack of 6 fighting for the 5th spot at 13:29. Addison Sole and Raley Cochran matched that time in 6th and 7th, respectively. Lacey Cameron was in 8th at 13:30 with Jenna Brown matching that in 9th. Lexi Wynn was in 10th at 13:31. She was trailed by teammates Cassie Sites and Ava Lightfritz at 13:34 and 13:43, respectively. Bailey Nichols was in 13th at 13:49. Savannah Holden was in 14th at 13:52. Bailey Ferguson was in 15th at 13:55. Ava Barrick was alone in 16th at 14:12. Naomi Young was holding 17th at 14:18. Williamstown's Sylvia Harris had moved up to 18th at 14:36, at the head of a pack that I believe was Haley Johnson in 19th at 14:37 and Berkeley Spring's Bella Shoemaker in 20th at 14:38. The lighting at this camera angle was not good all day.

Coming onto the track, Maysen Fletcher had pulled into about a 5-7 meter lead. Alyssa Sauro stared closing on the backstretch, and pulled got to within about a meter as they came out of the final turn before Fletcher pulled back away to take the win in 18:17. Sauro took the 2nd spot in 18:19. Fletcher covered the last 1.1 in just under 6:00. Emilia Tenney easily held the 3rd spot and also broke the 19:00 barrier with an 18:55 for 3rd. Addison Tharp easily held onto the 4th spot in 19:56. Cassie Sites, as she did last year, had a big-time closing mile, climbing from 11th all the way up to 5th, covering the last 1.1 miles 12 seconds faster than those that led her at the 2 mile mark. Julia Biola held the 6th spot in 20:13 with Lacey Cameron close behind in 7th in 20:14. Addison Sole held off the late charge of Ava Lightfritz with for 8th with both at 20:18. Lightfritz also had a big closing mile as she was 14 seconds behind Sole at the 2 mile mark. Jenna Brown won a close battle for the final podium position with a 20:28. Raley Cochran just slipped past Lexi Wynn at the line for 11th to also finish in 20:28 with Wynne 0.2 seconds back at 20:29. Bailey Nichols maintained the 13th position, finishing in 20:56. Savannah Holden was all alone in 14th in 21:03. Ava Barrick used a nice kick in the last 50 meters to sneak past Naomi Young for 15th with both recording a 21:27 time. Bailey Ferguson held 17th in 21:44. Sylvia Harris kept the 18th spot in 21:52. Buffalo's Cami Samples closed well to move up to 19th in 21:58. Haley Johnson took the final award position in 22:02.

How did RunWV do on the predictions? It was a mixed bag, solid but not great. The team picks went pretty well as the top 3 went as expected. However, Nicholas County had a big day to move from a predicted 7th place all the way up to 4th. 4-5-6-7 got jumbled around a lot. 8-11 went as expected. Individually, I got the champion correct. Actually, the top 3 were correct, and the top 5 were the top 5, just with 4-5 reversed. However, I only got 7 of the top 10, which I consider a below average performance. That held pretty well through 15 as I got 12 of the top 15 correct. I did get 21 of the top 25 which is solid. On average, runners finished within 5.97 places of their predicted finish. That's about a full place worse than last year, but decent. The runners who ran their way into a podium position were Elkins' Julia Biola (picked 13th, got 6th), Grafton's Addison Sole (picked 11th, got 8th), and Williamstown's Ava Lightfritz (picked 14th, got 9th). The ones who climed into the top 25 were Buffalo's Cami Samples (picked 31st, got 19th), Nicholas County's Haley Johnson (picked 39th, got 20th), Berkeley Springs' Bella Shoemaker (picked 36th, got 23rd), and Hampshire's Piper Dawson (picked 33rd, got 24th). The biggest mover of the day was Frankfort's Bailey Harris who climed 23 spots from her predicted 56th place finish to her actual 33rd place finish. From a team standpoint, Nicholas County had the best day, scoring 17 points fewer than predicted.

In the search for MVP, Williamstown was so far ahead that any one of them could have stayed home and they'd have still won with ease. Obviously, I look at Nicholas County moving from 7th to 4th and have to consider Haley Johnson's performance, but I tend to steer toward the podium when something makes sense, and in this case, we have such an occurrence. Frankfort held the 2nd podium spot by just 5 points. With a couple of their top runners battling injury and/or illness, someone had to step up, and someone definitely did. I actually had this runner picked as their #7 coming into the race. She was NOT their #7...nor their #6...nor their #5. She stepped way up and ran as their #4 and salvaging a podium appearance for her team. For that reason, the 2024 RunWV MVP is Frankfort's Bailey Harris. Interestingly, Harris was selected for this last year as well. (perhaps I should have given that more consideration when making this year's picks).

I offer my congratulations to the Williamstown girls. Moving up a division certainly made no difference to you. You were strong all season, and really stepped up in the final three meets. You left no doubt with 3 in the top 10, 4 in the top 12, and 5 in the top 20. You had 7 finishers before anyone else had 4. It was a dominant performance and you earned every bit of it.

I offer my congratulations to Maysen Fletcher. That was a race for the ages with the two of you practically stride-for-stride throughout. You learned from two early season defeats to Sauro and did what you needed to do to take this win. In one short season, you have already etched your name among the State's All-Time greats. Ric Flair says "To be the man, you've got to beat the man," and today you did just that.

I offer my congratulations to the girls who shook up the predictions. You prove what I try to tell people every year. Rankings and predictions don't mean a thing. That's why we run the race.