Berkeley Springs boys win own X-Country Invitational; Buser wins girls race

September 25, 2007



Berkeley Springs High School hosted its first-ever cross country invitational on Saturday, September 22, at Warm Springs Middle School, with the Indian boys team placing first and the girls team finishing third.

Lenny Roach led the strong Berkeley Springs boys team to a resounding victory. The Indians scored 28 points, 40 points better than their nearest competitor, Doddridge County. Keyser finished third with 84 points, followed by Martinsburg 95, Frankfort 136, Pendleton County 137 and Tucker County 140.

John Mundey placed third, Jake Wise finished seventh, Cory Yarrington was ninth and Denny Golden placed 10th, to round out the Berkeley Springs scoring. Caleb Smalley and Stephen Smith also ran for Berkley Springs.

Levi Grandt, the defending Class AA cross country champion, won the boys race in a time of 16:40, which was 10 seconds faster than Roach's 16:50. Roach had beaten Grandt earlier in the year when the two faced off in Barboursville at the Geico Invitational and the two will likely duel it out in a few weeks for the state title.

Paw Paw's boys also competed, but did not have enough runners to have a team score. Ben Mann was the top runner for the Pirates, finishing 28th, Chris Kendall, Logan Stotler and Ronald Fifield finished 56th, 57th and 58th, respectively.

Rachel Buser, the three-time defending Class AA champion, captured the girls race, avenging a loss to Rebekah McBride suffered a week earlier at the Potomac Valley Conference Championship. Buser was strong, running the 3.1 mile course in 20:23 seconds, 50 seconds ahead of McBride, who finished second.

Kari Mundey placed fourth for Berkeley Springs, Katie Close was 16th, Sandy Crum 28th and Chelsea Hessler 33rd.

Grafton won the team title with 46 points, followed closely by Frankfort with 47, Berkeley Springs was third with 65, followed by Keyser 100, Doddridge County 102 and Tucker County with 127.

Berkeley Springs will compete in the Bull Run Invitational this Saturday, September 29, in Hereford, Md.