The 2010 Magnolia Mudhole Cross Country Invitational is now in the record books. This past Saturday the Blue Eagles played host to 13 teams from all over the state. Winning the high school boys championship was Doddridge County and winning the girl’s high school championship was Berkley Springs.

The hard-fought race on the boy’s side saw the top two Magnolia runners place second (Alec Hinerman) and third (Bill Feeney), finishing with outstanding times of 16:47 and 16:49, respectively. Their leadership garnered, along with the finishes of James Haught (18:08 and 11th), Kyle Lancaster (19:56 and 31st), Dylan King (21:43 and 43rd), Kenny Headley (22:16 and 46th), and Mikal Raber (23:20 and 51st), the team a third place trophy.

Three girls lined up for the home team, lead once again by sophomore Christa Harshberger in 14th place in a time of 21:49, followed by senior Rachel Hoffpauir in 26th place/23:13, and freshman Shelby Sands in 50th place/28:14.

“Christa maybe went out a little too aggressively, but I was actually glad to see that,” said boys and girls Head Coach John Holliday. “Within certain limits she has to be more aggressive. But, to put things in perspective, her 14th place time would have been a course record last season. We put together a very competitive field.

“At this point in the year I really think we ran as well as we could,” said Holliday. “Everyone, boys and girls, were competitive and pushed themselves to excellent times on our home course. We knew who our competition was and we took it to them. We were just plain beaten on this day, but we learned a lot about ourselves and about our competition for the Regional Championship in October. The boys have to find nine points somewhere in the next month.”

A lot of compliments came in to the meet administration all day. People were complimentary about the course, it being spectator friendly, as well as about the event itself, the quality of competition, and the facilities.

Said Holliday, “Last year I had two seniors that had never been able to run in a home meet, so we put this thing together; this year it is bigger and better in every way and we want to keep it growing each season. I just hope our kids appreciate it, because it is all done for them. My goal is to host the Regional Championship on our course for the seniors we will have in 2011.

He continued, “On behalf of Magnolia High School and all of our athletes, thanks go to New Martinsville Parks and Recreation Director Beverly Gibb and to Gary Willey in getting the woods mowed and cleaned up. They didn’t have to do that but you can tell the people of New Martinsville are proud of their town and want it to look good.

“Special thanks go to Mr. and Mrs. Tim Shiben who own the old golf course. We received constant praise on the quality of our course and that goes directly to them and their generosity in allowing us to use the field.”

The next competition for Magnolia will be a quad meet at Tyler Consolidated on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 4:30 p.m., followed on Saturday, Oct. 2, on the home course of Ritchie County at North Bend State Park.