Tyler's Amos Kimble with a nice lead on the hill.

The 2024 State Cross Country Championships were held this past Saturday at Cabell Midland High School in Ona, West Virginia. The day was beautiful with temperatures in the low 70’s and bright blue skies.

Wetzel and Tyler Counties were well represented as both Magnolia and Tyler Consolidated sent full boys teams to the event and Tyler Consolidated by two girls who won the right to run after qualifying in the top 10 at the regionals at St. Marys high school the previous week.

Saturday was a big day for the Silver Knights’ Amos Kimble who finished 7th last season but through hard work and dedication lifted his performance to another level this season. It paid off with a fantastic performance against the state top runners as he blitzed the field with a time of 16:09.63 to Donovan Tanouye, a senior from Paw Paw who ran a 16:28.29. Kimble took the early lead and never looked back as he increased his lead on the final hill and down the stretch coming into the stadium to claim the championship.

( “I’m so happy to see all of my hard work pay off in this year’s state championship. I trusted in my training and went for the win. I have the best support team from my family, to my coaches and my teammates. Without them, this would not have been possible,” said Amos Kimble.)

Not far behind Kimble was Magnolia’s All-State senior runner Landen Davis who finished 6th overall with an impressive time of 17:06.44 to edge out the Silver Knights sophomore sensation Travis Moore who jumped up from 13th last season to finish in 7th place just two seconds behind Davis with a time of 17:08.47. The Silver Knights and Blue Eagles also received top 20 performances from Knights sophomore Brody Nice who ran a 17:51.99 and Magnolia’s Riley Dennis who was on his heels with a 17:52.02.

The Blue Eagles as a team finished 4th among all schools with a team score of 119, while the Silver Knights were 5th with a score of 123. The top 10 teams were St. Marys 61, Charleston Catholic 67, Doddridge County 100, Magnolia, Tyler, Trinity Christian 129, Tucker County 134, Ravenswood 176, Summers County 242, and Mt. View 299.

84 runners from around the state qualified in regionals and competed. Magnolia’s Parker Werkau came in 27th with a time of 18:26.67, while teammate Corey Trotto ran a 19:17.05 good for 35th. Alex Yeager of Magnolia was 63rd with a time of 21:12.73. The Silver Knights Malakhi Davis was 66th with a time of 21:38.32, while teammate Jonathan Cross was 67th with a time of 21:52.97.The Knights Trey Meyer was 71st with a time of 22:29.44. Magnolia’s Nicholas Matheney was 75th in a time of 23:36.94.

In the girls finals on Saturday Tyler Consolidated junior Lily Haught ran a good race against 55 of the states top runners and finished 27th overall with a time of 24:10.82. Silver Knights freshman Andi Fiber was also impressive as she finished 34th overall in a time of 25:19.96. Both girls had fantastic seasons for the Knights and qualified for the state meet by finishing 7th and 8th at the regionals the prior week. Fiber was 7th in the regionals with a time of 22:31.38 and Haught was 8th with a time of 22:50.21.