Roach and Buser win titles at GEICO Invitational; Boys place second, girls fourth

For the second time in as many meets, both Lenny Roach and Rachel Buser brought home individual gold medals.

Traveling all the way to Cabell-Midland High School in Barboursville in order to compete against some of the state's best competition and the opportunity to run on the course where the state meet will be held, Berkeley Springs performed well and now know what improvements are needed as they move forward.

Roach, a junior, defeated the Class AA-A defending state champion Levi Grandt of Doddridge County, to claim the individual title in the boys race. Roach's winning time of 16:32.30 was more than 11 seconds better than that of runner-up Grandt who finished the 3.1 mile course in 16:43.38. Roach's effort combined with those of teammates John Mundey, Jake Wise, Denny Golden, Cory Yarrington, JD Smalley and Steven Smith, lifted the Indians to a second place finish.

Mundey finished seventh, Wise 21st, Golden 22nd and Yarrington 24th, to round out the scoring. Smalley and Smith finished 34th and 60th, respectively.

Ravenswood won the team title with 61 points. They were followed by Berkeley Springs 75, Ritchie County 111, Winfield, 149, Fairland, Ohio 155, Shady Spring 155, Doddridge County 186, Charleston Catholic 188, Tucker County 194, Scott 238, Grafton 240 and Pikeview 246.

Buser dominated the Class AA-A girls meet winning by nearly a minute over her nearest competitor, Megan Truelove of Winfield. Buser's winning time was 20:17.89, with Truelove finishing in 21:11.03.

Kari Mundey finished fifth, Katie Close 12th, Sandy Crum 56th and Chelsea Hessler 63rd as the Indians finished fourth in the team race.

Grafton won the girls meet with 67 followed by Shady Spring 76, Winfield 130, Berkeley Springs 135, Charleston Catholic 139, Doddridge County 161, Ritchie County 162, Pikeview 190, Ravenswood 192, St. Marys 207, Tucker County 233 and Scott 326.

Berkeley Springs travels to Elkins this Saturday, September 15 to run in the Forest Festival, before going to Keyser on Tuesday, September 18 for the Potomac Valley Conference Championship.