Friday, August 29, 2008

Stars on the rise at Hurricane.

Although it's only the first meet of the year, the Hurricane meet showed a lot, as many big stars from the south converged on the tough course for their season opener. Caleb Ellis of Saint Albans (ranked #7 on the RuntheArb poll) showed what a hard summer of training can do as he just went from being 'some guy on the St. Albans team' to being one of the brightest rising stars in the state. He ran away from the field to an impressive early season win with a time of 17:41. Trey Beckett of Midland (ranked #6) held on for 2nd place. Beckett has shown his fitness in some early season meets/ time trials and is coming into the season ready to make some big waves (if you've seen his tatoo that would be funny to you). The competiton just got a lot tougher in that region, which will ultimately push the level of running to new heights. Also of note was St. Albans runner Andy Bailey who seems to be catching onto this whole Cross Country scene. Predominately known for his aggressive mid-distance racing, he looks to be rewriting his running resume with a new found skill set of racing on grass. Winfield's Matt Burton makes his first race at the AAA level a success and is now considered a threat to the top ten. The same goes for Caleb Bowen of Hurricane, Dustin Meyers of Parkersburg and any one of Midland's nasty pack of runners.

Men's Team - Looks like Midland will be taking over the polls as the #1 team after this weekend with their impressive pack. Even with Beckett being in the best shape he's ever been in, the 1-5 split was still only 34 seconds. That's pretty insane. Their 2-5 runner were within 5 seconds of each other making them almost impossible to beat. The St. Albans crew ran great but they were spread out over a much larger margin. There was no sign of Caudill (one of their top distance runners in track) so they may not have been running full force. And to further hinder their chances rumors on the message board have Ellis down for the count with a post race stress fracture. We all know the message board posters never lie about things like that, so that info should be as good as gold.

On the Girls side, all I have to say is WOW to the Hurricane runners for an impressive opener. Alex Dent (ranked 5th on RuntheArb) smashing her own course record from last year (and in case you don't remember, she was pretty dang fit last year) by over 32 seconds and taking her first win of the year with a time of 20:17. Just as impressive is Josie Crouch (ranked 9th) in her Cross Country opener taking 2nd place only 10 seconds back of Dent. I kind of figured Crouch's natural abilities would allow her to excell this Cross Country season, but I wasn't expecting her to catch on that quickly. I guess having a talented runner like Dent as your training partner and Bill Posey as your coach aren't going to hinder your chances of being a superstar in this state. Also, it looks like Winfields Megan Truelove isn't intimidated by her new AAA competition. On the contrary, it looks like she plans to up her game to compete on their level. She may have got passed over on the first week's preseason poll, but she certainly locked in a spot with her impressive effort to finish 3rd.

Girl's Team - The Hurricane girls are setting themselves up to be the team to beat this year. They have a highly intimidating duo crushing people up front, and freshman Sara Davis really helping them out by moving up to be their 3rd runner, but their 4-5 will have to make a jump. University's ladies can still match up with the Hurricane's top three runner with the two Martinelli's sister and Van der Sloot. The team title is going to rest on the shoulders of these team's 4th and 5th runners. We haven't seen University yet but we might get a preview at the Knights Relay coming up this weekend. Midland looks to be off to a slow star but I have faith that this team will transform in the coming weeks.

Monday, August 25, 2008

High School Cross Country Kicks Off!

I'm going to try my best to add weekly coverage of some of the best meets happening in the world of WV running. I know I'll probably start slacking half way through the season so you guys can feel free to flame me on the message board to motivate me from my lethargic state. Once the season gets rolling there are going to be 50 million different meets going on every week (with all the Tues and Wed and some Thurs and Sat meets during the week), and there is no way I'm covering them all. I will try to hit on all the major hightlights of the week so if you're running great then you'll most likely get talked about on here all the time. I'll also give shout-outs to random Flyers runners and WVU Camp members no matter what they're running. I guess it's one of the added perks of being a part of those two programs.

Bobcat Classic (in case you're new to the internet - click for results)

Letitia Propst
is out of the gates with an easy win at the Bobcat Classic in Buckhannon. Unless you've lived in a cave the past year (or the southern part of the state that completely lacks the internet) then you already know who this superstar is and what she can do. You might as well get used to seeing her name at the number one spot all year, because that's where she likes to be. There were no big name all-state contenders at the meet so she went unchallenged the whole race, but we'll get a chance to see where she's at pretty soon when she makes a trip to the Geico Classic for the Pre-State meet.

Skylar McCoy showed why he's one of the top stars in A-AA as he made short work of the competition in the boys race. Like Letitia he lacked any major competition and we'll have to wait for a McCoy/Roach showdown to see if Skylar looks take the AA crown. With Levi Grandt doing the A-AA runners a huge favor by graduating, it now leaves the A-AA state championship open for the mere mortals.

Jefferson Invite

I often catch flack for poking fun of the panhandle teams, but truth be told I'm a huge Cory Hampshire and Lenny Roach fan. I get a limited amount of chances to see them in action, but when I do I'm always left in awe out how tough they are (especially Roach this past year at the state meet in track). For these two guys to be going head to head against each other for the first meet of the year is a real delight for the fans. Obviously the added competition upped the intesity of this race and both of them ran the times to prove it. Hampshire bested his old course record by over 30 seconds running a 15:59! Roach ran a very aggresive race and was able to hold on for a 16:09 (under the old course record as well). In the first race of the year these two guys have set the bar for their AAA and AA competition. Now we have to wait and see if anyone can push it higher.

Also, not to be overshadowed by their teammates accomplishments, Berkley Springs runner John Mundey ran 16:59 to get by Jefferson's Bradon Doughty. These two are coming into the season in far superior shape than last year, and that's saying a lot. These guys were both able run great at the State Meet off a slower start and it will be interesting to see how high up the ladder they can climb this year.

Jefferson High School had a pretty good team showing with the help of Cory's front running, but the 1-5 split was almost 3 mins. They have a good pack but they'll really have to tighten that up or a group like St. Albans will slip a tight pack of 5 runners in before Jeffersons 3rd. It's the first meet though, so there is plenty of time to wrap up the loose ends, and make a push for the team title.

Not to be forgotten is Hampshire's Rana Conneway who had a commanding win in the women's race. She's coming off a really impessive season last year where she just missed out on All-State honors (finishing in the dreaded 11 spot). I didn't hear a peep from her in track so I was a little worried about her shape coming into Cross, but it looks like that was all for nothing. She's definitely set herself up to be where she wants to be at the end of the season. And it looks like she's going to help the Hampshire team sneak up on some people, they have a pretty impessive little crew. All it takes is the right attitudes and they can make some things happen. Definitely a team to keep your eyes on.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

AAA Girls Preseason Ranking

Top 10 Girls AAA

1. Chelsea Jarvis (Capital) – You’ll see.

2. Allison Pettit (Morgantown)– I’m a Pettit fan . I know she’s often hurt, and doesn’t have the track times that some of these other girls do, but if she can catch a stretch of 3-4 months with uninterrupted training then she will win the state title. She led 99.9999% of the race at the state meet last year only to get nipped at the line. It was heartbreaking (unless you’re Propst), and I think, more than anyone, that she’s got an axe to grind this year. I don’t think we’ve even come close to seeing what she’s capable of and that bit of the unknown makes me put her higher up than Propst.

3. Letitia Propst (Elkins) – I know it’s hard not to pick her after last year’s outstanding win. She was on a roll like no other the whole season. But track showed that she was beatable, and maybe now some of the top names aren’t as intimidated as they were when this mysterious freshman showed up at the front of all her races last year. I’d say she’s outright the toughest in the group, and that’s what it takes in Cross Country. If she has the fitness to go along with that, then this girl could be the next big thing in WV running.

4. Courtney Yeager (Wheeling Park) – She’s coming off an absolutely dominant track season, where she killed everyone at the state meet, and made it look easy. But will her track skills transfer over to a 5K cross country? I guess we’ll find out. Last year’s state meet the top two runners got away and they put 30 seconds on the chase pack. That’s a big margin to make up. If she can commit to the front and sit and wait, and let her massive kick do the work, then her place is inevitable. It’s the same thing she did in track to win two state titles.

5. Alex Dent (Hurricane) – Dent has had moments of brilliance over the past few years, where she races so tough she looks invincible. She’s learning the ropes and this past track season showed she’s maturing into a well-rounded racer. With Coach Posey pulling the strings she’ll be in the mix when it matters and help lead her team to a big finish.

6. Rachel Williams (Midland) – This girl has been coming on for a long time, and she’s finally going to get a chance to shine this year. She’s coming off an impressive track season where she’s ran some good times in the 3200m, in spite of her coach training her for the 4x200 and doing nothing but working on hand-offs for 3 months. That’s no exaggeration. Now she is finally back in the capable hands of Chris Parsons, and I think we’ll see big things from her this fall.

7. Jordan McDonald (North Marion) – Here’s someone that has slowly been sneaking up on everyone for the past year. She went from finishing 20th at her Regionals meet in Cross Country to running an 11:32 3200m on the track in the spring. She’s come a long way in a short amount of time and this is going to be the year she mixes it up with the best runners in the state.

8. Jennifer van der Sloot (University) – With a new found confidence in her running, after becoming one of the state top mid-distance stars, van der Sloot looks to wreak havoc this cross country season. She’s a rarity among runners, with the type of talent to cross over into all events. If she can run this cross season the same way she did on track then she’ll be a hard one to shake off.

9. Josie Crouch (Hurricane) – That’s right. Can she go from a 400/800 runner to an All-State Cross Country runner in 5 months? You better believe it. This girl has the talent level of college mid-distance super stars, and I’m just waiting for her to come into her own and dominate this state. But, first things first. Learn to run (love) Cross.

10. Lydia Martinelli (University) - I have to have at least one of the Mini-Martinelli sisters in the top ten. Track didn’t go so hot for Lydia (at least compared to the level she was at in Cross) but at least she ran, which is why I’m giving this spot to her instead of her sister. I want to put her higher but I know everyone that I put above her has been working pretty hard in the off-season. They’ve stepped up their game and it might be hard for Lydia to sneak into the top 10. I also know that she only needs to train for a month before she goes in and does what she did last year, because she’s a freak.

Runners to Watch - The top 10 is never set in stone. There are still a bunch of runners on the bubble that will be fighting to disrupt the order. One slip up on race day and these guys will be gobbling up the competition on their way to All-State honors (in no particular order).
DeeDee Winningham (Midland) - Super talent who can run cross well.
Sarah Martinelli (University) – Finished in the top 10 last year!
Ari Kasprowicz (Preston) – Preston superstar. She’ll be there.
Rana Conneway (Hampshire) – Came from nowhere to finish 11th!
Megan Truelove (Winfield) – Making the big move up to AAA. She can hang.

AAA Girls Teams

1. Midland – With a lot of young talent and 3 runners who have a chance at being All-State (Williams, Taft, Winningham) this team is going to be tough to take down. Not only that but they’ll have home field advantage and the roar of the crowd to push them on. Coach Parsons will get these girls to where they need to be, then it’s up to them.

2. University – These ladies match up to Midland pretty well with 3 runners who have a chance at being All-State, but they could be in trouble when it comes to the 4th and 5th spot. They’ll need some runners to step it up if they want to win the title.

3. Hurricane – This group of girls has the chance to do some amazing things. But I wonder if they’re a year away from it. You can see things building and if all the pieces fall in places this year they could very well take the win. After this season though, you can go ahead and convert to Hurricanism because it’s going to be a hostile takeover and these young ladies will own the running scene for the next couple years.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

AAA Boys Pre-Season Polls

In an effort to break a personal record and update the front page more than twice in 6 months, I’m putting together some RunTheArb Cross Country pre-season hype and predictions. Now this is about as untechnical as you can get when it comes to predictions, I’m not using advanced logarithms to predict the top teams or calculating the rankings of each and every individual runner in the state. Runwv.com already does a great job of that, and besides, my math is just way too bad. It’s so bad that some of my top 10 lists will probably only go to 4 or 5. Instead I’m going to give you a gut feelings on who I think will be some of the top runners and teams in the state. Jason Santucci and Justin Simpson (and hopefully ”W” as well) will be joining in and we’ll be dishing on who we think some of the big surprises of the season will be based on rumors, hearsay and message board mongering (let’s hope everyone has been telling the truth on the message board).

This is also an official throw down/showdown to RunWv Josh to participate in the Ultimate, All-Out, No Holds-Barred, Prediction Contest of the UNIVERSE!! If he wins he gets to control the RunTheArb message board for a week. And if I win I get to control the RunWV message board, where lunacy and mayhem will reign supreme. Ok, so maybe this won’t happen but a person can dream.

These are my top preseason picks. Once the season gets going I’ll be changing this around some as we see these runners in action. Every Monday we’re going to sit down and re-do our top ten based on performances from the weekend (moving runners up and down a few notches or putting new ones on the list). After the Regional Meet is the last time we can change our picks leading into the state meet. Whoever has the best top 10 picks after the state meet is the supreme ruler of WV high school cross country, and gets bragging rights for the person who spends waaaay to much time following high school cross country. I sure hope it’s me.

Top 10 Boys AAA

1. Zach Tennant (North Marion) – How can you not put Tennant at no. 1 right now? He had a great track season winning the mile against some of the best WV runners this century and was also 2nd in Cross Country with a breakout race. He’s the King of the Mountain going into this season and people are going to have to step up their game to knock him off his roost.


2. Cody Pellicione (Morgantown) – Cody was one of the biggest surprises of the state last year, as he came out of nowhere to finish 6th at the state, an almost impossible task running against older, stronger more seasoned runners. And let’s not make excuses, “Oh it was a weak year” or “Oh it’s just beginners luck” or any of that crap. Last year was a good year for WV running and he was only 8 seconds away from finishing 2nd place. There seems to be a freakish amount of talent with him, and I think we’ll see him make a jump and be challenging up front with Tennant and Hampshire this year.

3. Corey Hampshire (Jefferson) – Here’s one I’ve been waiting to see knock something out of the park for a few years now. He’s probably one of the toughest runners in the state but has had a string of bad luck. If he’s 100% healthy and feeling good it will be a good battle up front.

4. David Caldwell (South Charleston) – I’m starting to think David Caldwell is a machine. When he’s running he looks like an emotionless T-1000 chasing John Conner, bent on killing everyone who stands in his way. But who built this machine?? The answer to that is a key reason to why this guy (?) will continue to improve and be threat for WV state champ.

5. Adam Frohnapfel (University) – If you’re surprised by this then you have not been keeping up.

6. Trey Beckett (Midland) – It’s almost a given that there will be a Midland runner in the top 10. In the past 10 years there has only been one year where it didn’t happen (and that was due to an UnderArmour wardrobe malfunction that took one of their top runners out). Luckily Midland has the talent of Beckett who will improve on last year’s 7th place finish. And as a reward for his high finish he’ll be getting a new tattoo of Billy Ray Cyrus and Hannah Montana to cover his entire back.

7. Caleb Ellis (Saint Albans) – My faith in Coach Henley forces me to have at least one St. Albans guy in the top 10. Rumors have been flying on the message board that these guys have been getting the job done this summer and look to make a run at the team title. This is no surprise, these guys have been on the verge of breaking out for a few years. The surprising thing is, who’s leading the charge for their team this Cross Country season. The unheralded Ellis just ran a 16:38 5K in a local road race, finishing only 15 seconds behind star David Caldwell, but it flew completely under the radar. Maybe people missed it because they didn’t recognize his name, but I’m betting after this season, it won’t happen again.

8. Logan Wojcik (Wheeling Park) – According to the message board – “Logan Wojcik is going for it this year” and I’ll tell you what, I’m a believer. Sometimes you have to filter through all the crap to find it, but there can be some truth to what all the crazy people post. After Debbie Greene he looks to be Wheeling Parks go-to guy, and although he’ll have some big shoes to fill with Beabout being off to UT, this guy looks on track to get the job done this season.

9. Craig Pritt (Preston) – Craig Pritt could not run a step all summer and still be considered a contender for All-State. A Craig Pritt training all summer and getting excited about the season, and setting himself up for a great fall…there’s no telling how far up the list he could be. I’ve been hearing good things from the Preston camp and I want to put him further up the list but for right now I’ll let him sit at 9,th ready to leap-frog the pack on a moments notice.

10. David Ciarolla (Farimont Senior) – My god, Ciarolla is still around? It seems like this guy has been in high school forever. I guess that’s what happens when you’ve been one of the top runners in the state, for 4 years. Since his very first season when he became State Champion, this guy has been one of the most talked about runners in the state. “30 mile long runs on Sunday!”, “He ran a marathon at the age of 4!”, “He can break human bones with his mind!” This guy’s legend continues to grow (and all the stories are true by the way). If David’s in the race you can go ahead and save one of the top ten spots for him. So really that leaves everyone else scrambling for the other 9.


Runners to Watch - The top 10 is never set in stone. There are still a bunch of runners on the bubble that will be fighting to disrupt the order. One slip up on race day and these guys will be gobbling up the competition on their way to All-State honors (in no particular order).

Ryan Smith (Midland) – Midland’s fastest freshman ever, on the track last year.
Sterling Snyder (Preston) – a workhorse who’s had a great summer
Lucas Greza (Morgantown) - Training partner of Pellicione who’s finally coming into his own.
Kyle Gramlich (Wheeling Park) – Finished 5th last year!
Ethan Elliot (University) – Freak of nature and sub 10 runner on the track.
Andy Bailey (St. Albans ) – Did you see this guy race the 800 at states? Freaking tough.
Brandon Doughty (Jefferson) – Superstar freshman last year in Cross.


AAA Boys Teams

1. St. Albans – If St. Albans can time it perfect and get all their guys running great on the same day they’ll snag the victory. With a new-found front runner in Caleb Ellis and a back up crew that includes Bailey, the Osborne twins and Caudill, they’ll be hard to match up to. But if one runner is having an off day then their lack of a 6th guy could really send them spiraling down the list. I’ve seen Coach Henley do it before, and I think he’ll have his crew ready to rock and roll.

2. Midland – With all the hometown bias aside, I could put Midland no. 1 and it would be a legit pick. This team race is going to be very close. Parsons always has his boys ready to rock and roll and they return all but Bias this year. With Beckett (4:32, sub-10, All-State Cross, state champ 4x800) leading the team they’ll need a tight pack running behind him to get the win. If they can keep the 1-5 split under a minute they’ll get the win. And they have the crew to do it with Smith, Queen, Miller, Neiman and Stewart all running within 20 seconds of each other when they’re on.

3. Jefferson – They finished 3rd place as a team last year (only 6 points out of 2nd) and they are returning everyone. But since they are a panhandle team – I really don’t pay much attention to them until the state meet rolls around (Not the same for the Northern Panhandlers). I’m sure they’re all in pretty good shape, but I won’t know it until after the state meet, when I see them on the podium and wonder to myself “Jefferson? Where the heck did Jefferson come from? Who would’ve thought they would finish so high?”

Friday, August 15, 2008

Athlete of the Week - Megan Metcalfe


The AotW for August 18th-24th is Megan Metcalfe. Megan is running the 5,000m for Canada in the Olympic Games in Beijing. Her semi-final is the on the 19th and, if she qualifies, her final will be on the 22nd. Megan is coached by Sean Cleary and won an NCAA title in the 5,000m for WVU in 2005. She is a native of Edmonton, Canada and has been training in Morgantown for the last eight years. Her website is www.megontherun.com.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Athlete of the Week - David Caldwell



The AotW for August 11th-17th is David Caldwell of South Charleston High School. According to the message board, David ran 16:12 at the Thomas Memorial Hospitals 5K. If the early-August performances are any indication, it'll take sub-16 to win AAA boys this year. Congrats to Hurricane's Alex Dent for running 19:17 in the same race. By the way, there's now 81 days until the WV State Meet and 110 days until Footlocker South...

Monday, August 4, 2008

Athlete of the Week - Cory Hampshire

The AotW for Aug. 4th-10th is Cory Hampshire, a senior at Jefferson High School. This past weekend Mr. Hampshire ran 15:59 at the Debbie Green 5K in Wheeling. (Adam Frohnapfel ran 21:32 at the Gene's 4-Miler, but 15:59>21:32.) Cory now stakes a claim for King of the Hill status among the WV boys. He is looking to become only the third non-Wheeling Park/NCAC boy to win a AAA Cross Country state title in the last 15 (!) years. It's now 88 days until the WV State Meet and 117 days until Footlocker South...