Keyser boys, Allegany girls win Area Meet

Apr. 25—FROSTBURG — The Keyser boys and Allegany girls won the Area Meet held on Monday at Miner Stadium.

The Golden Tornado boys won with a team score of 122 while the Camper girls scored 134 points.

Mountain Ridge hosted seven area schools including Fort Hill, Allegany, Northern, Southern, Frankfort, Keyser and Hampshire.

"I thought the combination of West Virginia and Maryland schools made for a lot of exciting finishes in these races," Mountain Ridge head coach Doug Baker said. "Each school seems to have a standout athlete, they get an opportunity like this to show how much work they've put in. We saw a lot of exceptional young men and women on the track and in the field."

The top five on the girls side included Mountain Ridge, Fort Hill, Frankfort and Hampshire. The Miners finished second with 108 points while the Sentinels placed third with 82. The Falcons and Trojans tied for fourth with 48 points.

The Tornado and Huskies tied for sixth with 34 and the Rams finished seventh with 32 points.

The event was at Mountain Ridge, but the Fort Hill coaches helped to record the stats. Baker praised the collaborative effort of the two programs.

"They do a lot of work, we do a lot of work," he said. "It makes the meet go smoother and faster. The kids tend to respect each other a little better seeing the coaches work together. We like hosting here, it's a good venue. A lot easier to run at home than on the road."

Allegany's Avery Miller won four events, the 100-meter dash, the 200, the 400 and the long jump. Miller won the 400 by almost six seconds with a time of 58.31 seconds.

The Miners were led by Mary Delaney who won the 800 and 1600. She won the 800 in 2 minutes, 21.80 seconds, almost 12 seconds ahead of second place.

"She's been a standout for the last three years," Baker said. "Mary's gonna try and defend her state championship in the 1600. She's also been working hard in her other events."

Bailey Nichols from Hampshire took the 3200 with a 12:33:83, a personal best.

Samantha Preaskorn from Allegany won the 100 and 300 hurdles. Her times of 17.95 in the 100 and 51.28 were both personal bests.

Keyser's team of Abby DelSignore, Hadley Courtney, Cienna Clark and Kiara Kesner won the 4x100 relay with a 55.49.

Allegany's Adri Meadors, Ella Shade, Sierra Campbell and Preaskorn won the 4x200 relay with a 1:55:04.

Southern's Iris Dubansky, Danielle Brobst, Abigail Lucas and Abby Butina took the 4x400 relay with a 4:31:27.

Mountain Ridge took the 4x800m relay as Brylee Gray, Delaney, Reese Rizzo and Sydney Snyder won with a 10:18:27.

The Miners also took the 4x100 shuttle hurdles with Laci Duncan, Annabeth Hughes, Carolyn Hughes and Layla Miller timing a 1:16:01.

The Campers won three of the six field events. Brandi Gochenauer won the shot put with a throw of 37-2 and the discus with a 101-10 throw.

MaeLeigh Plummer from Fort Hill won the high jump with a leap of 4-10 while Reghan Sivic from the Miners set a personal record with a 8-0 pole vault.

The Huskies swept the top three in the triple jump with McKenzie Upole winning the event. She set a personal best with a 30 8 1/2 jump. Kaylee Bowser and Katelyn Vansickle rounded out the top three.

In the boys competition, Mountain Ridge, Fort Hill, Frankfort and Northern rounded out the top five. The Miners edged the Sentinels 99-98 for second place. The Falcons took fourth with 85 points while the Huskies placed fifth with 58.

The Trojans scored 37, the Campers 20.5 and the Rams had 7.5.

"It's always rough to run up here in the cold," Keyser boys head coach Scott Furey said. "But I'm always happy when our kids compete. I think our kids competed well today, got a lot of really good efforts from people who have been doing well. But they did extra well today."

Fort Hill had the top two finishers in the 100m.

Tavin Willis won in 11.49 followed by Tristan Ross in 11.51.

Xavier Twyman from Mountain Ridge set a personal best, winning the 200 with a 22.87.

"I think Mountain Ridge's boys can win the state championship," Furey said. "To come up and be in the same competition and do well, we're in good shape."

Northern had the top two finishers in the 400. Ashton Sober won with a 51.12 while DeVante Ross was second at 51.32.

Garrett Ferguson of Frankfort won the 800 with a 2:05.50. Logan Hetrick and Edan Parks of Keyser rounded out the top three.

"Our sprinters are coming up on that backstretch, but everybody's running it," Furey said. "They can complain if they want, but everybody's running it. It makes it difficult."

Ethyn Peck of Northern set a season record in the 1600 with a 4:42.77.

The Falcons swept the podium in the 3200. Steven Kent Niland won with a 9:59.17 while Landyn Sell and Darius Gray finishing second and third. Gray ran a personal best of 10:34.02.

Ethan Wilt of Mountain Ridge swept the 110-meter hurdles and the 300 hurdles. He won the 110 running a personal best 16.29.

"Our male standout is very hard to pick," Baker said. "We have a real assortment of standout seniors."

Colin Salesky, Seth Sions, Chris Furey and Gavin Salesky took the 400 hurdles for Keyser, winning with a 1:03.58. Furey filled in as an injury replacement.

"Being area champions is a great thing," coach Furey said. "Us still being able to get the win was a big thing."

The Miners took two of the four relays, the 4x400 and 4x800.

Wilt, Brendan Kline, Will Haberlein and Drew Haberlein won the 4x400 with a time of 3:32.98.

Kline, Haberlein, Casey Culler and Ackerly Mulcaster won the 4x800 with a 8:14.27.

"Starting the meet with a win in the 4x800, that was exciting," Baker said. "Both the men and women won that event. It's fun to watch all the kids compete and kids come out of nowhere."

In the 4x100, Northern's Josh Brobst, Ross, Derek Bittinger and Sober won with a 45.56. Fort Hill took the 4x200 relay with Anthony Palmisano, Willis, Landon Sensabaugh and Ross running a 1:34.24.

The Tornado won two of the six field events. Gabe Ryan won the shot put with a personal best 52-11 1/4.

Despite the team's success, Furey emphasized to his team the need to continue to focus.

"Region I in West Virginia is hands down the hardest region, it's like a mini state meet," he said. "You can't comfortable with anything. If you get comfortable with what we did today, it's a problem. You're not gonna be as happy at the end of the year as you want to be.

"Frankfort, Weir, and Fairmont Senior are really tough."

Fort Hill's Carter Hess won the discus throw with a 156-9. It was almost 15 feet better than second place.

Xavier Payton of Mountain Ridge won the high jump with a 5-10.

The Golden Tornado swept the podium on the pole vault with two setting personal bests.

Griffin Paugh won with a 11-6. Tanner Detrick set a personal best with a 11-0 and Alek Detrick set a personal best with a 10-6.

"For us to go 1-2-3, that was really a good thing," Furey said. "They're ready for practice tomorrow. What that did for them was put them in the top four or five in West Virginia. They're excited as sophomores to be at that level and we're excited for them."

Northern took first and second in the long jump. Ross won with a 19-11 1/2 while Bittinger set a season best with a 19-6 3/4.

Southern's Charlie Peterson took the triple jump with a season best of 36-2 1/2.

Up next for Mountain Ridge is the Mountain Bash on Saturday at Catoctin beginning at 10 a.m. The Miners will compete against 11 other schools.

"There's some rather large schools, some 3A, 4A schools and a mixture of 1A and 2A schools," Baker said. "We're gonna see super competition. We'll focus in on a couple events and see how we do."

Jordan Kendall is a Sports Writer for the Cumberland Times-News. Follow him on Twitter @JKendallCTN.