Bridgeport’s girls continued their winning ways and the boys were strong in a runner-up finish Saturday at the Bearcat Invitational held at West Taylor Middle School.

 

The girls won the six team field with a score of 42 to hold off Philip Barbour with a 48. Fairmont Senior was close in the battle with a score of 56

 

“The girls did well again this week and came away with the win against two very good teams in Philip Barbour and Fairmont Senior.  The girls have been very focused all year and continue to show great determination,” said BHS Coach Jon Griffith. “The girls showed a very similar pattern compared to the boys team in that almost everyone improved, although we only had one career best for the girls from Samantha Gibson.”

 

The girls were led by Julia Muller with a third place overall finish and a time of 20 minutes, 10 seconds. Emma Campbell was fifth overall with a time of 20 minutes, 31 seconds.

 

Brooke Wagner (22:13), Haley Chamberlain (22:26) and Jenna Soltesz (22:28) finished in 13th, 15th and 16th place, respectively overall for the top five scorers for the Tribe.

 

“Having five in the top 16 is a pretty good finish.  Even so, Philip Barbour was right on our heels,” said Griffith. “Coach Jim Seaton was a great collegiate coach at Alderson Broaddus and is a great high school coach now at Philip Barbour.  He always has his girls ready to run when it counts.  They will be a team to watch at the end of the year.” 

 

A competitive 10-team boys’ field saw Fairmont Senior get past the Indians. The Polar Bears finished with 57 points, while the Indians weren’t far behind with 63. Philip Barbour was third at 72.

 

“The boys did fall to Fairmont Senior on Saturday, but it still wasn’t a bad day.  We were facing a highly motivated Fairmont Senior team.  Fairmont Senior runner Miguel Figueroa’s mother passed away this week.  Their team ran in honor of her and in support of Miguel.  The effort they put forth was impressive,” said Griffith. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to this young man and his family.”

 

Fairmont’s run was even more impressive considering the showing by BHS. Griffith said his team had solid runs across the board.

 

“As for our team, we saw improvement from all but five of our 31 runners.  In fact, 11 boys set career bests at the meet on a pretty difficult course,” said Griffith. “So it would be hard to categorize it as a bad day.”

 

Mark Duez was the overall winner at the meet. He cruised to the with a time of 16 minutes, 23 seconds – 17 seconds ahead of the second place finishers. 

 

“Mark Duez looked strong again, he just missed besting the course record of 16:21 (co-held by BHS’s Abe Merinar and Woodrow Wilson’s Chris Barbera),” said Griffith.

 

Bridgeport got a fifth place finish from Jackson Jacobs. Griffith sees big things ahead for him and others.

 

“Jackson Jacobs continues to improve and finished fifth overall with a time of 17:19.  That’s actually 27 seconds faster than Mark ran the course last year.  Cade Robinson also had a very good run and career best at 17:52, which is just six seconds behind Mark’s time last year.  Hunter Hutson (18:24) and Jon Luke Massie (18:43) had solid days and rounded out our top five for the day,” said Griffith.

 

Bridgeport is back in action Saturday. The team competes in the Times Invitational held at the Apple Valley Golf Course in Fairmont beginning at 11 a.m. There is shuttle service to the meet from the Walmart parking lot in Fairmont.