Mundey shines at State Track Meet

Berkeley Springs High School Boys Track Team proved the experts wrong last week. Coming into the Class AA State Championships the Indians were pretty much an afterthought. In fact, Runwv.com, the bible for high school track and field in the State of West Virginia, had the Indians picked to finish 13th in the team race. But, led by senior long distance runner John Mundey, Berkeley Springs surprised everyone, including this writer, and finished a strong third.

Mundey won the 1600 (4:32.22), 3200 (9:54.19) and also anchored the wining 4x800 meter relay team (8.17.15). Max Langenstein and Cory Yarrington ran the opening two legs of the 4x800, before Corey Shetler handed the baton to Mundey. Mundey also chalked up a fifth place finish in the 800 (2:01.47), for good measure.

Cory Yarrington also brought home three medals from the state tournament. The senior finished fourth in both distance events and ran the second leg of the winning 4x800 meter relay team. Yarrington's times, his best of the year in both events, were 9:58.54 in the 3200 and 4:36.55 in the 1600 (Mundey, too, ran his best times of the year in Charleston).

Berkeley Springs also got four points from the 4x100 meter relay team (45.22) of Bobby Mathai, Andrew Truax, Gudiel Guzman and Josh Kelly and from Matt Beadenkopf who cleared 11 feet in the pole vault; both the relay team and Beadenkopf placed fourth.

"I was very pleased with our results," said Berkeley Springs Coach Dave Mundey. “We had some kids really step up. There were several personal bests this weekend and the timing couldn't have been better. I am really happy for our seniors. Both John (Mundey) and Cory (Yarrington) had tremendous meets, Matt Beadenkopf had his best vault of the season, Max Langenstein gave us a strong leg in the 4x800, and Josh Kelly picked up a medal in the 4x100 meter relay. You could see that the potential was there. They just had to put it together and they did. I couldn't be happier."

Mundey scored 24.5 points to finish third in the individual high-point category.

Ritchie County won the boys team title with 62 points. Keyser was second with 57, while Berkeley Springs (48), Liberty Harrison (46) and Magnolia (43) rounded out the top five spots.

Harlie Stotler won her second consecutive Class AA shot put title on Friday, May 21. Stotler's winning throw was 37 feet 6 inches, more than a foot better than her nearest competitor.

Berkeley Springs, which finished in 17th place with 15 points, scored their other five points on fifth place finishes by Michelle Williams in 300 meter hurdles (48.88) and Ardath Osborne in the 3200 (12:10.90) along with a sixth place showing by Osborne, Williams, Kayla Mundey and Macy Houck in the 4x800 meter relay.
"I am really proud of the way our girls competed," Mundey said. “Harlie came back off a serious injury to win another shot put title and Ardath had a very good senior year. When the kids are trying that is all you can ask for."
Summing the weekend up, Mundey said, "This state meet just sort of put the cherry on top of the cake."

Oak Hill won the girls team title with Frankfort finishing second.
Mundey finished in the top three with high point honors:

1. Brandon Franklin, Liberty Harrison, 36
2. Jacob Rollo, Sherman, 32
3. John Mundey, Berkeley Springs, 24.50