Meet: AAA Boys State Meet Location: Williamstown, WV Date: October 30, 1999
As the gun sounded for the second race of the day, Seth Crislip of George Washington and Keith Rand of Morgantown bolted out front to get away from the tangled mess of 87 runners fighting for territory. As the runners approached the 1/2 mile mark, Keith Rand and Randy Melgarejo had opened a little space in the front of the pack. However, by the time the mile marker rolled around, pre-race favorite Larry Atkins had taken the lead. Atkins covered the first mile in 4:53 to hold a two second lead over Keith Rand and a three second lead over Jonathan Calhoun. Ben Lukowski and Shawn Greene rounded out the top five after one mile. Atkins had stretched his lead to seven seconds at the two mile mark. His time of 10:17 had put some breathing room between he and Keith Rand (10:24) and Jonathan Calhoun (10:25). Ben Lukowski was holding the fourth spot, and Jonathan Wright had slowly worked his way into the fifth position. The final mile saw Atkins hold his lead and finish with the victory with a time of 16:18. The race for second place was incredible as four runners were kicking down the last fifty meters of the home stretch. Keith Rand beat Jonathan Wright for the runner-up position by less than one second, with John Mallory moving up from ninth in the last mile to take the fourth position. Jonathan Calhoun claimed the fifth spot. The remaining All-State members were Mike Bartolf, Ben Lukowski, Randy Melgarejo, Shawn Greene, and Kenny Beerbower. The extreme quality of this race was displayed in the fact that each of the top 5 finished in under 16:30, the top 13 all finished under 17:00, and the first 52 were all under 18:00. Our AAA Boys MVP is Scott Smith of Preston. His meteoric rise from where he was predicted to where he finished moved Preston into third place. Had he finished where he was picked, Preston would only have been 6th in the meet.
Boys Team Results 1. Fairmont Senior 62 2 4 11 22 23 28 41 2. Cabell Midland 92 6 9 14 29 34 47 50 3. Preston 113 10 12 20 32 39 55 57 4. Hampshire 118 13 15 17 27 46 53 63 5. George Washington 127 19 21 25 26 36 51 64 6. St. Albans 133 3 5 35 42 48 61 7. Capital 153 8 24 30 33 58 68 69 8. Morgantown 157 1 31 37 43 45 49 56 9. Parkersburg South 180 16 18 40 52 54 65 67 10. Buckhannon-Upshur 208 7 38 44 59 60 62 66 Boys Individual Results Team Place Name School Year Time Score --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Larry Atkins Huntington 12 16:18.93 2 Keith Rand Morgantown 10 16:23.75 1 3 Jonathan Wright East Fairmont 12 16:24.43 4 John Mallory Parkersburg 12 16:25.49 5 Jonathan Calhoun Oak Hill 10 16:28.82 6 Mike Bartolf Fairmont Senior 12 16:34.76 2 7 Ben Lukowski St. Albans 10 16:35.69 3 8 Randy Melgarejo Fairmont Senior 12 16:45.80 4 9 Shawn Greene St. Albans 12 16:47.69 5 10 Kenny Beerbower Robert C. Byrd 10 16:51.77 11 Zach Beckett Cabell Midland 11 16:53.39 6 12 Trent Casto Buck-Upshur 12 16:55.50 7 13 Brent Garrett Capital 12 16:59.13 8 14 Justin Rogers Cabell Midland 11 17:00.41 9 15 Stephen Hogan Nitro 11 17:07.24 16 Stephen Hiser University 10 17:08.11 17 Jeff Gessler Jefferson 11 17:11.24 18 Charles Smith Elkins 11 17:14.89 19 Scott Smith Preston 12 17:15.53 10 20 Justin Underwood Fairmont Senior 12 17:16.19 11 21 Stetson Snowden Martinsburg 12 17:17.41 22 Nick Waite Preston 10 17:19.34 12 23 Justin Marietta North Marion 11 17:20.11 24 Brian Streisel Hampshireshire 12 17:20.47 13 25 Richard Kitching Cabell Midland 10 17:21.31 14 26 John Burke Wheeling Park 11 17:22.23 27 Josh Campbell Musselman 12 17:22.61 28 Shane Ruggles Hampshire 11 17:23.03 15 29 Craig Waybright Ripley 10 17:24.30 30 Josh VanMatre Park. South 12 17:25.01 16 31 David Deitz Hampshire 12 17:27.17 17 32 Mike Jones Park. South 12 17:29.14 18 33 Kenneth Hopper George Wash. 10 17:31.99 19 34 Aaron Miller Preston 12 17:33.02 20 35 James Quarles George Wash. 12 17:33.99 21 36 Ryan Smith Brooke 10 17:37.23 37 Adam Miller Fairmont Senior 12 17:38.34 22 38 Justin Cox Huntington 11 17:38.62 39 Joe Eshbach Fairmont Senior 10 17:38.93 23 40 Brad Kohler Capital 11 17:39.59 24 41 Ben Adams George Wash. 10 17:41.85 25 42 Seth Crislip George Wash. 12 17:42.27 26 43 Jason Whetzel Hampshire 10 17:46.23 27 44 Corey Neal John Marshall 11 17:46.47 45 Dameon Hall Fairmont Senior 9 17:46.70 28 46 J.P. Stanley Cabell Midland 12 17:46.95 29 47 Justin Bird Capital 12 17:50.83 30 48 Jacob Skousen Morgantown 12 17:53.51 31 49 Derek Bolyard Preston 11 17:55.37 32 50 Jason Campbell Capital 11 17:55.59 33 51 Jonathan Sloan Spring Valley 11 17:57.16 52 Jon Nelson Cabell Midland 9 17:59.67 34 53 Justin Waybright St. Albans 10 18:00.67 35 54 Zach Sabatino George Wash. 11 18:01.88 36 55 Adam Menear Morgantown 10 18:02.90 37 56 Chris Perry Buck-Upshur 11 18:03.31 38 57 Matt Livengood Preston 12 18:05.18 39 58 Mike Massey Park. South 11 18:12.54 40 59 T.W. Moore Fairmont Senior 11 18:14.23 41 60 Jansen Arnold St. Albans 10 18:16.12 42 61 Seth Lawson Morgantown 11 18:18.35 43 62 James Wager Buck-Upshur 12 18:20.69 44 63 Isaac Williams Morgantown 11 18:23.78 45 64 Aaron Hott Hampshire 12 18:25.60 46 65 Lewis Pauley Cabell Midland 11 18:27.46 47 66 Brent Jarrell St. Albans 9 18:28.19 48 67 Dan Weese Morgantown 12 18:28.41 49 68 Justin Foreman Cabell Midland 11 18:33.84 50 69 Justin Cimbak George Wash. 11 18:35.89 51 70 Forest Bogguss Park. South 10 18:38.82 52 71 Matt Gallery Hampshire 11 18:42.55 53 72 Jason Reese Buck-Upshur 12 18:43.02 54 72 Michael Hissam Park. South 11 18:43.74 55 73 Jesse Messenger Preston 12 18:44.11 56 74 Sean Lyons Morgantown 10 18:49.74 57 75 Justin Miller Preston 11 18:50.91 58 76 Eric McClain Capital 10 18:51.11 59 78 Oliver Dean Buck-Upshur 11 18:54.59 60 79 Philip Caudra St. Albans 10 18:58.20 61 80 Brad Wingler Buck-Upshur 12 19:03.13 62 81 Richard Karge Hampshire 10 19:17.23 63 82 Derrick Shukis George Wash. 12 19:31.38 64 83 Josh Kirk Park. South 12 19:55.94 65 84 Josh Frashure Buck-Upshur 11 20:00.82 66 85 Justin Kesterson Park. South 10 20:07.98 67 86 Stephan Page Capital 10 20:26.57 68 87 Marrico Greenhowe Capital 10 21:50.91 69
So, how did RunWV do on our predictions? Mixed results is probably the best way to describe it. We pegged the team champion with Fairmont Senior (although we didn't expect quite the overwhelming victory they produced) and the individual champion with Larry Atkins. Just to give ourselves a little pat on the back about the individual champion, we even nailed his time within seven hundredths of a second. Our pre-race time picked for Larry Atkins was 16:19, and he ran a 16:18.93. Things went a little downhill for us after that. Only seven of our predicted top ten finished in the top ten, and only nine of our predicted top fifteen finished in the top fifteen. To top it off, only 18 of our predicted top 25 finished in the top 25. We have to send out some congratulations to a few folks who really came to run today. These guys all finished at least 20 positions better than we predicted. Josh Campbell, Joe Eshbach, and Trent Casto each finished a little better than twenty spots higher than we predicted, but the real breakthrough, and this was our surprise of the meet, was Preston's Scott Smith who finished 19th after being picked to come in 65th. That's a whopping 46 place improvement, and we'll happily eat crow after that. Congratulations to Scott, and while we're at it, congratulations to the entire Preston team. They finished third in the state meet after being picked to finish only seventh. Way to go guys!