By: Josh Weekley
Tues. Sept. 8 — DCMS LKC Preview Meet, Doddridge County Park
Here is the rundown (and remember, we’re lumped in with AA and AAA as well) –
Girls place 9th of 12 complete teams. Maria Bee leads the way in 19th in 22:18. Emily Gola is 24th in 22:46. Hailey Keith is 44th in 24:07. Jocelyn Atkinson is 85th in 28:15. Nora Sias is 93rd in 29:32. Gabby Gogan is 106th in 35:59.
The boys claim 5th of 18 complete teams. Carter Lipscomb takes the win by a whopping 33 seconds in an official 16:13. This marks the top in-State A-AA time ever in this meet (and 2nd A-AA time ever in this meet). Trent Gola is 11th in 17:40. Brennan Miller is 27th in 18:58. William Atkinson is 52nd in 20:12. Joshua Berke is 76th in 21:21. Kaden Smith is 117th in 26:25. Logan Currey is 121st in 28:05.
A handful of things to think about with this meet. 1 – Only Carter, Brennan, and Logan were faster than last year, BUT…last year we already had 2 meets under our belt to get used to running hard and fast, and this year it was the season opener. 2 – Comparing splits with last year’s meet, Carter was 5 seconds slower at the top of the hill, 2 seconds slower at the mile, 5 seconds faster at the top of the course, 14 seconds faster at the 2 mile, and 25 seconds faster at the finish. The point being…control in the beginning can pay big dividends in the end. 3 – we need to get healthy. 4 – Championships don’t just happen. How did Carter celebrate his win and course PR today after getting home? He went on a 3.5 mile shakeout run. You have to make the decision about what you’re willing to do to pursue excellence.
Chic-Fil-A Invitational” — DCMS Boys and Girls Take Home The Win
HS Girls – Also a better showing today. The girls get 4th of 12 complete teams, falling only to Williamstown and a pair of AAA Teams (Ripley and Woodrow Wilson).
Alexis Lamb makes her racing debut in strong fashion, scoring a 4th place overall finish in 20:57, matching Emily Gola’s time in this meet from last year. She completely ignored her coaches’ instructions for the race, but it worked out. Maria Bee knocks over a minute off last weeks time with a 21:07, good for 5th overall and taking down a couple that beat her last week. Emily Gola goes 22:18 for 17th place, knocking almost 30 seconds off last week’s time. Hailey Keith goes 23:13 for 32nd, over 50 seconds faster than last week. Jocelyn Atkinson knocks off just under a minute from last week with a 27:17 for 78th. I believe that’s #2 all-time for her. Nora Sias goes 27:39 for 82nd, which is almost 2:00 better than last week. Gabby Gogan goes 34:03 for 101st, which is also almost 2:00 better than last week. In the JV Race, Cloe Tallman makes her debut with a 29:51 for 21st (and sets a mile PR in the process), and Lacey Shepherd opens her season with a 32:08 for 28th. I’ll also note that this is Race #2 this year, while it was #5 last year. We had more race experience under our belts at this point last year.
HS Boys – Finish 3rd as a team behind Wheeling Park and Fairmont Senior. A much better showing for the guys today than last week.
Carter Lipscomb blows it out of the water with an official 15:32. To the best of my recollection that’s the 4th best time ever ran on this course. #1 was a 15:17 from a guy from Ohio that went on to finish 2nd at Footlocker Nationals that year. #2 and #3 were Justin Simpson and Josh Simpson at 15:20 and 15:23. Justin also qualified for Footlocker Nationals that year, and Josh was an alternate. All 3 of those were on the same day, I believe. Carter went through the 2 mile in 9:48, which isn’t too far off his 3200 PR from Track (though I think the mile and 2 mile marks are a little short on this course…I do think the total distance is accurate). Carter takes the win by 34 seconds. Trent Gola cracks the 17:00 barrier with what I think is a new PR of 16:56, good for 8th overall today. That also put him in front of the #2 ranked Class A runner, but look out, a Freshman from Wheeling Central dropped a 16:35. Wow. Brennan Miller takes a step forward with an 18:03, good for 25th. That’s 50+ seconds better than last week. William Atkinson takes an important step forward this week with an 18:45 for 34th. That’s over 90 seconds faster than last weeks run.
Joshua Berke steps way up with a 19:19 for 44th. That’s over 2 minutes faster than last week. Kaden Smith goes 24:49 for 99th, over 90 seconds faster than last week. Logan Currey goes 26:54 for 106th, also over a minute faster than last week. I think that’s #2 all-time for him as well. Jimmy Berke goes 27:16 for 49th in the JV Race. And we stayed yellow today, so we get to have our 2 meets next week!
MS Boys – as mentioned, they take the win…by 24 over Williamstown. Trey McDonough gets 2nd in 10:26. That cuts 14 seconds off last year’s time, and I’ll go ahead and note here, that last year, they didn’t have to run at 3:00 in the afternoon. Big heat out there today, and that can certainly impact performances. Jerod Trent steps up to take 6th in 10:55. Carter Sias is right behind in a close race in 8th in 10:58, which knocks 39 seconds off his time from last year. Corey Swentzel grabs 13th with an
11:07. Luke Rokisky gets 34th in 12:08, a full 1:08 better than last year. Isaac Johnson gets 40th in 12:23. Alex Johnson gets 57th in 12:41. Noah Bodkin gets 3rd in the JV race in 12:38 with Samuel Gola getting 5th in 13:26. Every single one of those varsity guys and Bodkin would have been in the top 3 for us last year at this meet, and Gola would have only missed it by 10 seconds.
MS Girls – of course, they won as well, taking it by a minuscule 72 points over Park MS (Woodrow Wilson feeder). Catherine Cottrill leads the way in 2nd with an 11:00. Bailey Holden continues her early season excellence with a 4th place finish in 11:13, which is 50 seconds better than last year (just shy of Maria’s time last year). Cassidy Cumberledge gets 9th in 11:42. Payton Trent gets 11th in 12:07, which is just off Bailey’s time from last year. Marlee Sias is right behind in 12th in 12:11. Payton Currey gets 21st in 12:52. Aleigh Cheeseman rounds it out in 91st in 17:27. Again…this year, they were running in the afternoon heat. Well done ladies.
From Coach Kellar: We have told several of the runners, but we have never posted this, but we are not going to either Belpre meet, HS or MS, this week. This is because Ohio CC meets can have more than 35 runners in their races. An executive secretary at the WVSSAC told me a few weeks ago that we are not permitted to run in races that have more than 35 in a race or wave. Therefore, we (DCHS & DCMS) will be participating in the Mudhole Invitational in New Martinsville, this Saturday. They have not given us any starting times, yet, but it will likely be held in the morning with 4 straight races that involve our HS & MS runners. They have not told us, yet, who runs or when. We will pass that info along as soon as we receive it. Please be patient with us during this challenging season. We will do the best we can to keep you informed.
