When Bridgeport High School cross country Coach Jon Griffith established goals for the 2014 season, it had little to do with regular season results. Rather, the milestones were simple: Win the Big 10 Conference meet, the Region II meet and take home a second straight Class AA-A state championship.

 

After last weekend, Griffith and his BHS boys’ team can cross two of those goals off the list and put them safely in the “goal accomplished” category. And barring something unusual, the Indians are the favorites to repeat as state champs.

 

According to RunWV.com, the boys are odds on favorites to win the crown. The running Web site has BHS ranked – as the club has been all season – as the state’s top team in the Class AA-A division. BHS has a projected score of 85 points, while Ritchie County is a distant second at 197 and Webster a distant third at 201.

 

With that margin and the fact that the Indians are not only the defending state champion, but have yet to lose to a Class AA-A team now for two seasons, one would think the Indians could be ripe for the picking. However, Griffith said his team won’t be thinking about what’s behind them or the pressure created because of it.

 

“We don’t worry about that kind of stuff.  We are focused on continuing to improve and run our best each week,” said Griffith. “The boys are running with confidence and a lot of determination.  Rather than pressure, I would call it motivation … They will be focused and ready to run on Saturday.”

 

The team was definitely ready to run at Berkeley Springs last Thursday in rolling to the Class AA-A Region II title. Bridgeport finished with an impressive score of 24 to easily outdistance runner up Philip Barbour with 81 and Berkeley Springs with 88. There were 11 teams in the field.

 

Michael Duez continued his strong late season showing with a second place finish. He finished in 17 minutes, 30 seconds. Jimmy Lacaria (17:31) and Arryn Tennant (17:32) were right behind to finish third and fourth, respectively. Incredibly, Bridgeport’s other four runners finished in the top 10 with Jacob Funk (17:54) in seventh, Troy Pallay in (17:55) in eighth, Ian Frailey (17:58) in ninth and Tim Kinney (17:58) coming in at the number 10 spot.

 

“I was very happy with the boys’ results and times at the regional.  All seven of them were in the 17’s and to have them all make All-Region by finishing in the top 10 is awesome,” said Griffith.

 

There’s a chance the Tribe could have some make All-State this weekend. However, they’ll be facing a tough course at Cabell Midland.   

 

“Our kids like the course at Cabell Midland.  It is a fast course, but still has a few challenging areas,” said Griffith. “Having experience at a course is always helpful and most of our kids have run it several times over the past few years.” 

 

The seven runners that led the way in the regional will run Saturday in Ona. The top five finishers are counted for scoring at the state meet. However, all seven have a place in how Bridgeport has dominated meets this year and Griffith is hoping for more of the same Saturday.

 

“The other two can displace runners and increase the other teams’ scores.  With our pack running mentality, we count on the 6th and 7th runner to do their job and finish high to help in the team scoring,” said Griffith.   

 

The boys will begin their quest for a repeat at 10 a.m. The Class AA-A girls portion of the meet follows at 10:45 a.m. The awards ceremony will begin at 11:45 a.m.