Despite being projected to finish third or fourth based on times throughout the year, Bridgeport’s boys’ cross country team earned a runner-up finish in the Class AAA boys state championship meet held this afternoon at Cabell Midland High School in Ona.
Based on the projections of RunWV.com, the Indians and Winfield both had numbers showing they would be either third or fourth in the meet. Instead, they improved their mark with the second-place finish.
"Finishing in a runner up position was a true best-case scenario. We hoped to close the gap on Grafton (the presumptive runners up), but we knew that a lot of things had to go right for us to catch them," said Coach Nathaniel Lutyens. "A lot of things went right. Our consistent top four all ran up to their high standards, and our fitth and sixth runner sealed the runner up finish. I am super proud of this team."
The Tribe finished with 87 points, which was tied with Grafton who also had 87 points. However, the official WVSSAC results listed on the Athletic Live Web site has Bridgeport second.
Elkins won the competition, as projected, comfortably with 49 points. Fairmont Senior was fourth with 143 points, which meant the top four teams were all from the Big 10 Conference.
Troy Zorick again led the way for the Indians. The senior had time of 16 minutes, 42.47 seconds, which was good for fourth place overall.
Bridgeport also had another runner finishing in the top 10. Fellow senior William Northey came in ninth with a time of 16 minutes, 56.92 seconds.
Parker Muncy was the only other runner in the top 20. Muncy posted a time of 17 minutes, 39.89 seconds.
Bridgeport’s two other finishers that counted toward the point total was Graham Norther and Daniel Yearego. G. Northey finished the race in 18 minutes, 8.5 seconds. Yearego was 50th overall with a time of 18 minutes, 49.23 seconds.