Indians defend Regional Track Titles

Berkeley Springs High School girls and boys track teams defended their Class AA, Region II, track and field titles on Thursday, May 10 at Lewis County High School. The girls easily defeated runner-up Frankfort 140 to 99 for their third consecutive championship while the boys made it two in a row with 123 points to 104 points for runner-up Philip Barbour.

"We knew we had a good chance to bring home team titles," said Berkeley Springs coach David Mundey of the regional meet. "We are certainly pleased with the performance of our athletes. It takes a total team effort to win this championship and we got that. It is nice to see the kids pulling for each other and give everything so that the team can succeed."

Leading the girls to victory was Meghan Mock. Mock, the defending high point girls' athlete from the 2006 West Virginia State Class AA Track and Field Meet, won four individual events. Mock leaped over 18 feet for the second time this season, with a winning long jump of 18 feet 2.75 inches. She also won the high jump, clearing 5 feet 6 inches. Mock then won the 800 meter run in a winning time of 2:28.65 and had enough energy, only two races later, to win the 300 meter hurdles in a time of 47:01.

"Meghan showed a lot of guts in the 300 meter hurdles," said Mundey. "She had just finished running the 800 minutes earlier and still had enough in her tank to overtake Frankfort at the finish line."

Rachel Buser also had an outstanding meet. The talented junior long distance runner won both the 1600 and 3200 meter runs in respective times of 5:34.03 and 11:53.56. She also ran a leg on the second place 4 x 800 meter relay team that included Kari Mundey, Breanna Henry and Ardath Osborne and then placed third in the 800.

"It was a tough day for our long distance runners," Mundey said. "In the past they had more time between events because the Class A meet was held at the same time. Since they now hold the meet on a separate day, the kids don't get as much time to recover between events."

Megan Risinger finished second in the 100 meter dash, Amber Booher was second in the high jump, Henry finished second in the 3200 meter runs and Kelsey McCoy placed second in the discus. The 4 x 100 meter relay team of Risinger, Rebecca Trump, Corrie Riffle and Marra Hutchinson finished third as did Henry in the 1600 and Kati Whittington in the shot put.

Brittany Naill and the shuttle hurdle relay team of Risinger, Trump, Booher and Jordan Reedy placed fourth, Trump was fifth in the 200, Mundey finished fifth in the 3200, as did the 4 x 200 meter relay team of Risinger, Trump, Riffle and Hutchinson. Riffle and Hutchinson rounded out the scoring for the girls team with a sixth place finishes in the 400 and long jump, respectively.

Lenny Roach won two regional titles and Foster Sirbaugh one, helping lead the boys team to their second consecutive regional championship.

Roach won both the 1600 and 3200 meter runs in respective times of 4:40.27 and 10:28.62, while Sirbaugh cleared 6 feet 4 inches to win the high jump.

Though the Indians won only three gold medals, they had five second place finishes and seven third place finishes along with four other finishes in the top six that enabled them to claim the team title.

Earning silver medals was the 4 x 100 meter relay team of Cody Hess, Sam Byrne, Cody Reed and Sammy Trump, along with Byrne in the 100, Reed in the shot put and Brian Ness in the long jump.

Placing third was the 4x200 meter relay team of Hess, Byrne, Trump and Paul Truitt, Eric Duckwall in the 800, Ness in the 300, Reed in the 400, Ness in the high jump, Byrne in the discus and the shuttle hurdle relay team of Trump, Truitt, Brandon Costello and Ness.

John Mundey and Truitt finished fourth in the 3200 and 300 meter hurdles, respectively. Hess placed fifth in the 100 and Truitt sixth in the 110 meter high hurdles to round out the scoring.

"We thought our boys would get a challenge from Philip Barbour coming into the meet and they did," Mundey said. "I was glad to see our kids stand up to the challenge and win another title. It was truly a total team effort. We didn't have a lot of champions, but we had a lot of kids score points."

Both teams head to Charleston for this week's state tournament with hopes of bringing back some team hardware. The boys will be one of the favorites to win the Class AA title, while the girls will be in a battle for the runner-up spot, if everything goes according to Hoyle. Winfield is the prohibitive favorite to win the girls Class AA title.

Berkeley Springs won the boys Class AA title in 1987 and it would be a joyous 20-year anniversary if they repeated the feat this week.

"It's really going to come down to which team has the best two days in Charleston," said Mundey. "We have been competitive the last few years and finishing third isn't bad, but they only give trophies to the top two teams and that is our goal. I know the kids are up to the challenge, we just need a few things to fall our way."

The State Track Meet begins this Friday, May 18, at Laidley Field in Charleston.

WV Class AA, Region II Team Scores

Girls

Berkeley Springs     140

Frankfort      99

Lincoln     91

Grafton     70

Liberty Harrison     55

Philip Barbour     54

Keyser     36

Petersburg      4

Braxton County      2

Boys

Berkeley Springs     123

Philip Barbour     104

Keyser     82

Grafton     64

Frankfort     42

Lincoln      40

Liberty Harrison     35

Petersburg      12