Meet: A-AA Girls State Meet Location: Williamstown, WV Date: October 31, 1998 The second race of the day held what was anticipated to be the closest team race of the afternoon. The rabbit starters in this race were Jessica Fisher of Winfield, Virginia Waugh of Midland Trail, and Missy Spangler of Ritchie. The favorites had reached the front of the pack by the half-mile mark with Spangler leading the show followed by Jessica Taylor of Fayetteville, and Amy Shrewsbury of PikeView. Little had changed by the mile mark. Taylor had moved into the lead, covering the first mile in 5:44. Spangler was holding onto second place and Jessica Tusing of East Hardy had moved into third. Heather McDaniel of Grafton had climbed into the fourth spot, dropping Shrewsbury back to fifth. The first five remained the same at the two mile mark with only the second and third runners changing places. Taylor still held the lead with a time of 12:16 through two miles. Tusing had continued her frontward move into second place in 12:24. Spangler was in third in 12:34, McDaniel in fourth in 12:36, and Shrewsbury in fifth in 12:41. At the finish line, it was Fayetteville's Jessica Taylor holding off a hard-charging Jessica Tusing of East Hardy down the stretch to finish in 19:14 to Tusing's 19:17. The narrow victory made the Sophomore a two-time state Cross Country champion, our second repeat winner of the day. Missy Spangler of Ritchie held on to the third spot in a time of 19:49. Grafton's Heather McDaniel finished fourth in 20:00. Traci Lackey of Doddridge moved up in the last mile to round out the top five with a time of 20:10. The All-State squad was completed by Kelley Moran of Doddridge in sixth in 20:11, Amy Shrewsbury of PikeView in seventh in 20:17, Ashley Shepler of Charleston Catholic in eighth in 20:39, Annie Schuerger of Charleston Catholic in ninth in 20:58, and Jill O'Neil of Magnolia in tenth in 21:01. Of the ten All-State athletes, only two (Shrewsbury and Shepler) do not return and three (McDaniel, Lackey, and Schuerger) are Freshmen. In the team competition, the anticipated neck-to-neck finish did not materialize as Doddridge's depth was too much for Charleston Catholic to overcome. Doddridge won four of the five head-to-head battles to claim the title with a score of 33 to 45. Magnolia edged Berkeley Springs for third place. How did RunWV.com do with our predictions? Just as in the A-AA boys race, we correctly picked the individual and team champions, and we again had thirteen of our predicted top fifteen finish in the actual top fifteen. The two who moved up to surprise us with a top fifteen finish were Megan Schuerger of Charleston Catholic who finished 11th (predicted 16th) and Nicole Bauer of Bluefield who finished 13th (predicted 20th). The best leap from predicted finish to actual finish was Danelle Smith of Berkeley Springs who was predicted 29th and finished 19th. TEAM SCORES ----------------------------------- 1. Doddridge DODD 33 2. Charleston Catholic CC 45 3. Magnolia MAG 83 4. Berkley Springs BS 87 5. Fayetteville FAY 114 Incomplete -- Bluefield (BLU), East Hardy (EH), Grafton (GRAF), Greenbrier West (GBW), Midland Trail (MTR), Oak Glen (OG), PikeView (PV), Ritchie (RIT), Scott (SCO), Winfield (WIN) INDIVIDUAL RESULTS Place Name School YR Time --------------------------------------------- 1. Jessica Taylor FAY 10 19:14 2. Jessica Tusing EH 11 19:17 3. Missy Spangler RIT 10 19:49 4. Heather McDaniel GRAF 09 20:00 5. Traci Lackey DODD 09 20:10 6. Kelley Moran DODD 10 20:11 7. Amy Shrewsbury PV 12 20:17 8. Ashley Shepler CC 12 20:39 9. Annie Schuerger CC 09 20:58 10. Jill O'Neil MAG 11 20:01 11. Megan Schuerger CC 11 21:15 12. Sherri Flohr GRAF 09 21:20 13. Nicole Bauer BLU 12 21:21 14. Jessica Fisher WIN 12 21:22 15. Jill Coffman DODD 11 21:25 16. Lori Coffman DODD 09 21:34 17. Denise Phillips MAG 11 21:37 18. Cindy Jones DODD 11 21:49 19. Danelle Smith BS 11 21:56 20. Tonya Younker BS 09 21:57 21. Emily Moffatt CC 10 21:58 22. Mary Giardina CC 09 22:07 23. Ashley Warren CC 09 22:14 24. Crystal Bergen BS 10 22:19 25. Erika Goldsmith DODD 09 22:29 26. Jessica Smith DODD 09 22:33 27. Katie Puckett GBW 10 22:42 28. Virginia Waugh MTR 11 22:58 29. Erin Lewis BS 10 23:07 30. Martha Drinkard SCO 11 23:08 31. Laurie Ferguson MAG 11 23:17 32. Danielle Elliott OG 10 23:24 33. Diana Thompson MAG 12 23:32 34. Sarah Johnson FAY 11 24:16 35. Emma Archer MAG 09 24:22 36. Christy McCann BS 10 24:27 37. Tiffany Burskey OG 12 24:40 38. Sarah Bailes FAY 09 25:04 39. Ann McConnell CC 12 25:18 40. Lori Zeppuhar MAG 11 25:25 41. Laura Bell BS 10 25:33 42. Daria Rainieri BS 09 25:53 43. Kelli Morrison FAY 09 26:15 44. Lauren Jones MAG 11 26:36 45. Megan Zimm FAY 10 26:44