Magnolia Boys’ CC Team Places Second In Regional

The Magnolia Boys’ Cross Country Team did something last Thursday that has not been done since 1996 – qualified as a team for the West Virginia State Championship. The team received an automatic berth to the tourney because of its runnerup finish behind regional champion Doddridge County.
All-regional team members Nathan Harshberger and Alex Hinerman gave outstanding performances, placing sixth and ninth, respectively. All-region second team runner Bill Feeney finished in 11th place, while brother Joe followed in 16th place. Finishing the scoring were freshmen James Haught, 31st, and Kyle Lancaster, 43rd.
“We knew coming in that we had a very tough regional competition and that we would have to run very well to be going to state,” said MHS Cross Country Coach John Holliday. “The boys did exactly what I asked of them in order to win the regional championship, but Doddridge still outscored us by 20 points. There just was not anything else we could do on this day, but we will have another shot in Huntington next weekend.” The girls’ cross country squad had no state qualifiers, but both runners competing, Rachel Hoffpauir and Christa Harshberger, made second team all regional by virtue of their respective 12th and 17th place finishes.
“Both girls ran well above their regional ranking and I am very proud of the effort they gave,” said Holliday. “The top ten finishers go to state and Rachel missed it by two places and 22 seconds. I think if these two girls want to be in that top five next year they can be.”
The state championship will be held at Huntington’s Cabell Midland High School on Saturday. The A-AA boys race is at 1:30 p.m.

Holliday added, “We will go down on Friday to run the course and they will have some activities in the evening for the kids. I really want this to be a special time for them because everyone has worked so hard.
“But at the same time, we are going to be ready to run our best yet on Saturday and then we’ll see what happens.”

