Meet: A-AA Girls State Meet Location: Williamstown, WV Date: October 30, 1999
The gun sounded for the start of A-AA competition and Kayla Lester dashed off into the early lead. Jessica Taylor reeled her in shortly after and had already established a gap by the 1/2 mile mark. Jessica Taylor continued her blistering pace throughout the first mile as she crossed the marker at 5:39 (4 seconds faster than the AAA first mile). Sherri Flohr and Heather McDaniel had moved into second and third places running 5:48 and 5:49, respectively. The top five was rounded out by Missy Spangler and Jessica Tusing. While Taylor dropped off the AAA pace during the second mile, she did continue to increase her lead over Flohr and McDaniel. Taylor crossed the two-mile marker at 12:00, with Flohr at 12:13 and McDaniel at 12:15. Spangler were running together in the fourth and fifth spots, crossing the marker at 12:27. Sherri Flohr made a strong move in the last mile, but was only able to cut Taylor's lead in half. Taylor eased across the line still 7 1/2 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor. Heather McDaniel held onto the third position, and Missy Spangler maintained her fourth place standing. Traci Lackey moved up in the last mile to take fifth place. The All-State team was rounded out by Kayla Lester, Kelley Moran, Sally Holtgrewe, Gina Spino, and Jessica Tusing. A special mention must be made about the guts and desire of Jessica Tusing. Suffering from dehydration to the point of staggering, and even collapse with less than fifty meters to go, Tusing responded to the crowd's urging for her to get up and try to make it to the finish. She staggered across the finish line and held on to her All-State position by less than half a second. The Girls A-AA MVP for the meet is Kristen Burgoyne. While Grafton was never in danger of losing this meet, her rise from a predicted 30th to a finish of 13th left no doubt in the minds of spectators about who was going to win this meet.
Girls Team Results 1. Grafton 25 1 2 4 6 12 15 16 2. Williamstown 57 3 5 11 18 20 21 29 3. Magnolia 86 7 10 14 23 32 33 42 4. Charleston Catholic 95 13 17 19 22 24 34 5. Berkeley Springs 137 8 9 37 39 44 45 6. Richwood 158 27 28 30 35 38 40 43 7. Tyler Consolidated 159 25 26 31 36 41 Girls Individual Results Team Place Name School Year Time Score --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Jessica Taylor Fayetteville 11 19:11.26 2 Sherri Flohr Grafton 10 19:18.91 1 3 Heather McDaniel Grafton 10 19:35.38 2 4 Missy Spangler Ritchie 11 19:49.84 5 Traci Lackey Doddridge 10 20:30.30 6 Kayla Lester Winfield 11 20:37.41 7 Kelley Moran Doddridge 11 20:46.70 8 Sally Holtgrewe Williamstown 12 20:50.16 3 9 Gina Spino Grafton 10 20:56.20 4 10 Jessica Tusing East Hardy 12 21:09.25 11 Martha Drinkard Scott 12 21:09.67 12 Karla Smicker Williamstown 11 21:17.84 5 13 Kristen Burgoyne Grafton 11 21:32.92 6 14 Marian Brooks PikeView 10 21:33.40 15 Denise Phillips Magnolia 12 21:34.64 7 16 Crystal Bergen BerkeleySprings 11 21:50.70 8 17 Erin Boggs Braxton 11 21:56.33 18 Danelle Smith BerkeleySprings 12 21:56.56 9 19 Kristina Reickaver Greenbrier West 10 21:58.45 20 Emma Archer Magnolia 10 22:00.70 10 21 Kristin Daugherty Williamstown 11 22:02.25 11 22 Lindsay Shaffer Frankfort 10 22:07.24 23 Amy Lilly PikeView 11 22:07.76 24 Cara Bryan Grafton 10 22:08.74 12 25 Mary Giardina CharlestonCath. 10 22:09.29 13 26 Barri Newberger Winfield 9 22:09.70 27 Stephanie McGary Cameron 11 22:16.15 28 Ryan Posey Winfield 9 22:17.85 29 Jill O'Neil Magnolia 12 22:20.13 14 30 Gayle Tighe Grafton 10 22:30.05 15 31 Megan Docherty Grafton 9 22:31.32 16 32 Annie Schuerger CharlestonCath. 10 22:32.45 17 33 Amanda Hescht Williamstown 9 22:33.80 18 34 Emily Moffatt CharlestonCath. 11 22:38.10 19 35 Brandy Broughman Williamstown 10 22:38.46 20 36 Liz Langler Williamstown 9 22:43.19 21 37 Leah Acord Liberty Raleigh 11 22:43.87 38 Emily Tallarico CharlestonCath. 9 22:52.76 22 39 April Franklin Frankfort 9 23:16.21 40 Nicole Lemal Weir 9 23:19.07 41 Chasity Williams Magnolia 9 23:24.38 23 42 Anna Dissen CharlestonCath. 10 23:29.42 24 43 Valerie Crist Midland Trail 11 23:31.64 44 Laura Fitzsimmons Tyler Consol. 12 23:40.46 25 45 Mandi Weese Tyler Consol. 12 23:47.98 26 46 Sarah Rapp Richwood 9 23:52.99 27 47 Angie Bard Richwood 12 23:59.44 28 48 Nicole Funkhouser East Hardy 11 24:02.60 49 Brett Plott Williamstown 12 24:08.86 29 50 Mary Greene Richwood 11 24:31.38 30 51 Abby Miller Tyler Consol. 12 24:31.58 31 52 Laurie Ferguson Magnolia 12 24:34.91 32 53 Rana Rokles Magnolia 12 24:40.44 33 54 Brittany Baird CharlestonCath. 9 24:42.68 34 55 Sarah Bailes Fayetteville 10 24:53.91 56 Alison Hewitt Richwood 10 25:05.97 35 57 Tracy Surface Tyler Consol. 10 25:28.03 36 58 Jamie Holliday BerkeleySprings 9 25:51.55 37 59 Jessica Garrett East Hardy 11 25:59.54 60 JoJo Johnson Richwood 10 26:08.32 38 61 Laura Bell BerkeleySprings 10 26:15.80 39 62 Heather Flanagan Richwood 11 26:21.78 40 63 Tonya Kotson TylerConsol. 10 26:38.85 41 64 Megan Delisi Magnolia 10 27:00.25 42 65 Stacy Miller Richwood 10 28:06.33 43 66 Jessica Fox BerkeleySprings 9 28:52.12 44 67 Sunny Isennock BerkeleySprings 9 29:18.24 45
So how did RunWV do on our predictions? Pretty well. Grafton won the title as expected (although we certainly didn't expect the complete and utter domination that we saw), and Williamstown finished as runner-up as expected. Individually, we did pick the correct champion. Nine of our predicted top ten finished in the top 10. Only twelve of our predicted top fifteen finished in the top 15, but one of those didn't finish the race (or maybe wasn't there at all). Congratulations to Martha Drinkard, Karla Smicker, and Kristen Burgoyne for moving into those positions. Of our predicted top 25, 21 finished in the top 25 (and again, one of those simply didn't finish). Congratulations to the four girls who moved up into the top 25 that we didn't pick to be there. They were Amy Lilly, Kristen Burgoyne, Kristina Reickaver, and Cara Bryan. Reickaver was our big surprise for this race. She finished 19th after being picked 37th. Congratulations Kristina!