A year after having everything go right in what some may have considered an upset in earning the school’s first-ever boys state track and field championship, Bridgeport High School coach Jon Griffith saw things not follow the same script this past weekend. The Indians, looking for a chance to repeat, were unable to keep pace with Ritchie County in finishing fifth.

 

The Rebels rolled to the title with 78 points. Bridgeport, despite finishing fifth, was just four points from finishing second with 45 points. Roane County and Poca tied for second with 49 points, while Keyser was third with 47 points.

 

“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed.  I give a lot of credit to Ritchie County. They came in and had an outstanding meet.  They had no let-downs and made no mistakes,” said Griffith. “We needed to have that kind of outing across all of the events to contend and we just didn’t do that. 

 

“Our kids gave good effort and we are still proud of them, but it would have been nice to win or finish runner-up and we probably should have, but sometimes things just don’t work out,” he continued. “Hopefully the underclassmen, the staff and I will use this to motivate us to be even better prepared for next season.”

 

One thing Griffith wasn’t disappointed in was the 4x800 meter relay team. The same unit that finished second in the previous week’s Region II championship, managed to not only win the state title, but do so by nearly five seconds.

 

The Indians’ team of Jimmy Lacaria, Arryn Tennant, Timothy Kinney and Michael Duez did the honors for Bridgeport. The group posted a time of 8 minutes, 15.56 seconds, which broke the school record.

 

Griffith said while pleased, he wasn’t totally surprised. And he said it’s the format of the various postseason meets that helped out his runners.

 

“At the regional, we intentionally didn’t run full out.  The one day format of regionals requires distance runners to conserve energy where they can, while still qualifying,” said Griffith. “With several of the members of the 4x800m relay in three and four events, we ran well enough to qualify without sacrificing too much effort. 

 

“In contrast, the West Virginia state meet is run on a two day format and allows those same kids to split their events up over those two days, thus allowing them to give much greater effort in each event and the results showed that,” said Griffith.  Breaking the record was something the boys had focused on and planned to do.  I had my doubts, considering that record was established by some pretty good athletes, three of whom are now running collegiately plus Michael Duez who will also be running next year at West Virginia Wesleyan.  To their credit, this year’s group held on to their goal and ran an outstanding race to break the record by a couple of seconds.” 

 

Bridgeport ended up getting plenty of points in the relays. Along with the first place finish, the Indians also picked up two third place finishes (4x100 and 4x200) and two sixth place finishes (4x400 and shuttles).

 

“(It was) pretty good, but a little below what we had hoped to achieve,” said Griffith. “In the field events, typically a very strong area for us, we only scored five points.  Unfortunately, field events can be tricky.  They are all very technical and consistency is extremely important.”

 

For most of the season, the boys were consistent. Bridgeport finished the season with a record of 135-11.   

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows the winning 4x800 meter relay team seconds after capturing their state title, while Dylan Tonkery - who placed in the 100 and 200 meter dashes - is shown below.