Meet: A-AA Boys State Meet Location: Williamstown, WV Date: October 30, 1999
The final race of the day was the one RunWV had most looked forward to. We considered this to be anyone's race. We thought of flipping a coin to decide who to pick in this race, but no 5-sided coins were lying around at the time. Before this race was even 1/4 mile old, the five guys we picked as contenders for the state title (Denny Hayes, Ryan Parsons, Shaun Spielman, Dusty Dent, and Adam Cross) were the top five in the race. By the 1/2 mile mark, Derek Dailey and Aaron Phillips had joined the front pack. The pack of seven remained together through the first mile, with Denny Hayes holding the slightest of edges at the marker, crossing at 4:57. Shaun Spielman was running second, Adam Cross was in third, and Ryan Parsons was holding fourth with the clock finally rolling over to 4:58. Aaron Phillips was running in sixth, and Derek Dailey was clinging to seventh. Things finally began to spread out in the second mile. Shaun Spielman took over the lead as he and Ryan Parsons opened a gap on the rest of the field. The two crossed the two-mile mark at 10:28 and 10:30, respectively. Denny Hayes was hanging on to third place with Aaron Phillips and Dusty Dent nipping at his heels. The final mile saw Shaun Spielman open his lead wide to cruise down the home stretch to a 10 second victory. Ryan Parsons held off a charging Aaron Phillips by just over two seconds for second place. Denny Hayes and Dusty Dent claimed the fourth and fifth positions. The All-State Team was rounded out by Cole Carpenter, Sy Farris, Jimmy Middleton, Josh Sheets, and Kelby Gray. Each of the ten finished under 17:20. The Boys A-AA MVP is Nick Postlethwait from Ravenswood. Ravenswood needed someone to step up and close the gap from their first three runners. Postletwhait ran by far his best race of the season (that we've seen), and his performance today was the difference between Ravenswood finishing third and Ravenswood finishing fourth.
Boys Team Results 1. Doddridge 56 2 6 10 17 21 33 49 2. Ritchie 72 3 12 15 18 24 28 32 3. Ravenswood 90 7 8 9 20 46 56 57 4. PikeView 103 1 19 23 29 31 5. Weir 110 13 16 25 26 30 35 40 6. Frankfort 149 4 14 37 39 55 7. Sissonville 150 5 11 42 44 48 8. Wheeling Central 180 22 36 38 41 43 50 54 9. Independence 204 27 34 45 47 51 52 53 Boys Individual Results Team Place Name School Year Time Score --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Shaun Spielman BerkeleySprings 12 16:35.65 2 Ryan Parsons Williamstown 12 16:45.57 3 Aaron Phillips PikeView 12 16:47.62 1 4 Denny Hayes Doddridge 11 16:52.73 2 5 Dusty Dent Gilmer 12 16:57.88 6 Cole Carpenter Ritchie 11 17:07.89 3 7 Sy Farris Frankfort 11 17:09.32 4 8 Jimmy Middleton Sissonville 12 17:11.90 5 9 Josh Sheets Doddridge 10 17:16.26 6 10 Kelby Gray Ravenswood 10 17:19.43 7 11 Isaac Andrick Ravenswood 10 17:30.11 8 12 Justin Simpson Oak Glen 9 17:32.88 13 Chris Snell Ravenswood 9 17:36.43 9 14 Derek Dailey Doddridge 12 17:39.60 10 15 Adam Cross Sissonville 12 17:48.87 11 16 Jayson Lafferre Ritchie 9 17:50.13 12 17 Jamie Adams Gilmer 12 17:51.93 18 Charlie Meadows Fayetteville 11 17:55.48 19 Matt Apesos Weir 11 17:59.78 13 20 J.R. Ohler Frankfort 12 18:08.85 14 21 Nate Koehnen BerkeleySprings 11 18:10.90 22 Steven Smith Fayetteville 12 18:12.26 23 Ben Carroll Ritchie 12 18:16.08 15 24 Sean Ganoe Weir 9 18:17.50 16 25 Chris Mitchell Doddridge 11 18:26.95 17 26 Tommy Riggs Ritchie 9 18:29.20 18 27 Evan Brooks PikeView 12 18:29.91 19 28 Nick Postlethwait Ravenswood 11 18:31.57 20 29 Eric Thompson Doddridge 9 18:33.95 21 30 Fletcher Knowles Scott 12 18:37.66 31 Shaun Gainer Shady Spring 10 18:39.16 32 Chris Stephens Wheeling Cent. 9 18:39.84 22 33 Will More PikeView 11 18:45.02 23 34 Jordan Taylor Ritchie 11 18:46.28 24 35 Joe Eafrati Weir 10 18:47.45 25 36 Andrew Kaylor Weir 12 18:48.93 26 37 Justin Ricks Winfield 12 18:49.42 38 Adam Wells Tyler Consol. 10 18:50.15 39 Steven Nutter St. Marys 11 18:50.92 40 Matt Gilson Independence 10 18:56.05 27 41 Colin Wine Braxton 10 18:56.84 42 Dereck Simmons Ritchie 9 18:59.15 28 43 J.W. Dove East Hardy 10 19:00.35 44 Dennis Roark PikeView 9 19:04.66 29 45 Dan Campbell Magnolia 11 19:07.44 46 Marcus Griffith Weir 9 19:11.12 30 47 Ethan Gruber East Hardy 11 19:17.20 48 Marc Moshier PikeView 11 19:20.51 31 49 Justin Kellar Ritchie 11 19:21.36 32 50 Josh Dye Doddridge 11 19:22.99 33 51 Dustin Nelson Independence 10 19:23.19 34 52 Travis Knobbe Weir 12 19:33.80 35 53 Jon Spielvogel Wheeling Cent. 11 19:36.60 36 54 Eric Hill Frankfort 10 19:37.55 37 55 Jacob Horstman Madonna 11 19:45.21 56 JoJo Morgan Wheeling Cent. 9 19:46.64 38 57 William Snoberger Frankfort 10 19:49.70 39 58 Rob Letterio Weir 11 19:52.07 40 59 J.T. Richardson Wheeling Cent. 12 19:58.85 41 60 Anthony Koontz Sissonville 11 20:03.24 42 61 Matt Kolas Wheeling Cent. 11 20:16.20 43 62 Charlie Bergen BerkeleySprings 9 20:32.76 63 David Kendall Sissonville 9 20:41.58 44 64 Billy Cooper Independence 10 20:49.36 45 65 Andy Wise Ravenswood 10 20:51.90 46 66 Ben Wood Independence 10 21:01.16 47 67 David Tucker Sissonville 10 21:17.05 48 68 Sean Wellings Doddridge 10 21:23.47 49 69 Jeffrey Rogers Wheeling Cent. 12 21:45.33 50 70 Steve Sexton Independence 10 22:07.73 51 71 DeWayne Rhodes Independence 9 22:39.53 52 72 Chris Brown Independence 11 22:41.19 53 73 Michael Safcsak Wheeling Cent. 12 22:43.25 54 74 Cody McGuire Frankfort 9 22:43.83 55 75 Josh Matics Ravenswood 10 23:18.63 56 76 Drew Fields Ravenswood 9 23:56.44 57
So, how did RunWV do on our predictions. Well, it wasn't our best set of picks on the day, but it certainly wasn't our worst. We correctly picked the team Champion, and while the individual champion wasn't who we picked, he was among the grab bag of five that we knew had a shot. We only got seven of the ten All-State picks right, but we did get 13 of the top 15 right, and 21 of the top 25. Congratulations to Sy Farris and Justin Simpson for jumping into the top 15, and to Jayson Lafferre, Ben Carroll, Sean Ganoe, and Nate Koehnen for jumping into the top 25. Who was our big mover for this race? Just ask Ravenswood as they used Nick Postlethwait's move from a predicted 50th into an actual 28th. That twenty-two place improvement was what carried Ravenswood to its third place finish. Special mention to two of our top 15 and top 25 movers...Sy Farris was picked to finish only 22nd, but ran a superb race to finish seventh...and Nate Koehnen who we picked to finish 39th, but jumped up to 21st. Good job guys. Congratulations to each of you.