(submitted)

The Jefferson High School boys won their race handily Friday, Sept. 9, coming in over a minute ahead of second place Williamsport (Md.) on a slow course still wet from the weeks rains. Jefferson led from the start and extended their lead on every leg of the race. This is the third straight commanding meet victory for the Jefferson boys this season.

For the third time in three tries this year, Eric Graf posted the meets best time, coming in at 7:40 and outdistancing all the other runners by 19 seconds. He was joined by his brother, Ryan Graf (who posted the second best time of the meet), Sam Munnis and Andrew Milliron on the victorious Jefferson team.

Other West Virginia teams competing included the Jefferson B team (Jackson Jacobs, Jimmy Ross, Rhett Zillinger and Jimmy Meyer), which jumped ahead of the Hedgesville and Martinsburg A teams and finished sixth. Jefferson C also had a strong performance and finished ninth.

Jefferson travels next week to the nationally significant Oatlands Invitational in Leesburg, Va., to face a extremely strong field of teams from up and down the East Coast.

On the girls side, the Hedgesville girls won in a tough race with the lead changing hands several times as they battled it out with Sherando (Va.) and Middletown (Md.) for the title. Anna Lizon ran a 10:05 anchor leg to secure the title for the Hedgesville girls. She was joined by Megan Breen, Brittany Pollard and Falon Stone in the victory. Sherando pulled away from Middletown to bring home second place for their school. Middletown held on for third.

Jefferson (Anya Wallace, Emma Lindberg, Desiree McCarroll, Molly Briggs) used strong final relay legs by McCarroll and Briggs to secure sixth place for Jefferson over Martinsburg. Jefferson B (Pandora Affeman, Jenn Biebel, Claire Martin and Tatiana Evanisko) finished 10th while Jefferson C finshed in 15th place.