By Allen Hamrick
For the first time in school history, Trevor Armes has done what no other Cross Country runner from CCHS could do, he qualified for the state final and come in 23rd place.
One may not think this is such a great feat, but to go up against the best of the best from all over the state is quite an accomplishment. It was Armes’ final cross country race as a CCHS student, and for the two years the program has been in place, he has been one of the best to dog a track. All season, he has proven his talents over and over and has put this county on the map in the sport of Cross Country. Armes will certainly be missed next year, but he has planted the seed for future runners from CCHS and has given them a goal to beat.
The Cross Country boys’ team, who were supposed to go to the state competition as the fourth-place team, were ripped off, and you can put it no other way. Because of the ineptness of officials to run a proper regional race with proper paperwork, the WVSSAC took the boys team out of the top four and placed them fifth blowing their hopes of going to the states as a team.
All season, the boys ran against other teams, such as Richwood and Charleston Catholic, and have defeated them every time they met. There was no way on the difficult course that Richwood or Charleston Catholic could have made up the points to beat Clay. However, it was the Richwood and Charleston Catholic teams that got to go to the state finals. Poor score management at the Regionals at Pikeview High School had Clay having eight runners.There was also no camera at the finish line, no pull tags or chip time to keep track of the runners, only popsicle sticks with numbers. There was no chute for the runners at the finish line to stay in order.
CCHS had seven runners in the competition, and there was no doubt about that, yet due to a paper glitch saying that Clay had eight runners instead of the seven, the scores were changed and blew the chances for the boys to go to the state competition. The reason is this – Hoover stepped up and claimed that ghost runner position. So, mysteriously, the eighth runner that Clay had, Hoover claimed, yet they could not prove they had a runner that raced. This took the points from CCHS Cross Country and dropped them from getting to compete in the state finals.
Poor management skills during the Regional competition, along with the unwillingness of the WVSSAC to look at the facts, kept a skilled CCHS boys team who worked hard all year and had proven themselves worthy to go from going to the states. There were countless calls from CCHS administration to WVSSAC on behalf of the boys, but it fell on deaf ears. All that was said to head Coach Ron Starcher was that the CCHS team was young and didn’t know how it worked in the world of Cross Country.
I say this—if the boys ran and were faster than other teams, they deserved to go to the state finals regardless of whether or not they were young or just came out of the womb. It wasn’t fair; the boys deserved the shot and didn’t get it. However, that being said, they had a great year and will only get better, because I assume that in the eyes of the WVSSAC, cross country, like wine, gets better with age and it doesn’t matter how fast a team is, it’s how old it is.
Congratulations to Arme,s and to the boys’ and girls’ team,s for a great year. Clay County is proud of you. Now, on to track, and I can guarantee they will not have a bottle in their hands, and a video camera will be in action, so there can never be a question as to how good our CCHS teams are.
