Members of the Parkersburg High School boys’ cross country team will compete Saturday in the WVSSAC high school state cross country meet at Cabell Midland High School in Ona. (Photo provided)

PARKERSBURG — Now in the fourth year of his second tenure as head cross country coach at Parkersburg High School, Big Reds boss George Angelos is more than excited about Mountain State’s final run of the season Saturday.

Although the red and white boys and girls aren’t expected to take home team gear from the state meet in Ona at Cabell Midland, which begins at noon for the girls and 12:45 p.m. for the boys, it’s enough to say things. are going in the right direction for PHS.

“We really agree on what it takes to have a good program and what it takes to be good at this sport, even though our middle school program has been the bottom half of the county since I’ve been coaching,” said Coach Angelos, whose top finishers predicted by runwv.com are junior Connor George (8th) and sophomore Morgan Metz (15th).

“We had a lot of kids that bought in and stepped up and they are now one of the best teams in the state.

and I really give them a lot of credit.

The PHS boys just won a Region IV championship over runner-up Cabell Midland, 47-49, in which Parkersburg South’s Josh Gill earned a spot for Ona by finishing sixth.

The Knights defeated the Big Reds, 41-43, previously at the Mountain State Athletic Conference championships, where George led the boys with a fourth-place finish and Metz finished third to help the girls place second in the MSAC.

“We just have a group of guys who are very strong, very united, very committed, very focused with ambitious goals.” admitted Coach Angelos, who also predicted senior Walker Jones and junior Ricardo Salazar to crack the top 25.

The boys will also lead seniors Christian Rutherford and Lucas Jenkins, junior Anthony Herrera and freshman Rogan Mincks.

“They have been just great to coach this year,” Angelos added. “Their goal was to finish top three in every competition during the season and they did that in every competition they competed in and we showcased our top guys.

“They achieved that goal and their academic goal. I think it was 3.9, I believe, by the team GPA and now we’re winning only the first regional championship in over 20 years and only the second in the last 40.

A busy schedule certainly helped.

“We really wanted to create a program that was both fun and creative, but challenging, and we didn’t have a single competition other than dual, which was mandatory, and which had less than 20 teams.” Angelos said. “We wanted to be battle tested this time of year. We ran a race in Chicago that was a monster race. We had two really big races in Ohio. The Eisenharts were like one of the best races in the state of Ohio.

“We’re actually going to North Carolina as a team to compete (Nike Southeast Regional on Nov. 23), so four states are on our schedule this year and our guys are being tested. They’ve kind of been underdogs for most of the year and they come in at number four, which is the highest ranking of the year, but they definitely feel like they have a chance to continue to shine like they have all year. You know the state meet is unpredictable and we’re excited to maybe be asleep.

The Big Red girls are expected to finish fifth and will also lead seniors Katie Rutherford, Ellie Hines, Olivia Carpenter, sophomore Audrey Wagoner and freshmen Calli Angelos and Brie Winans.

“Carpenter will be there this weekend and (senior) Thea (Bourdeaux) will be the backup,” said the coach, who did not have Carpenter available at the regional.

The climb also continued for the PHS girls.

“Our group was like the boys” » continued coach Angelos. “Very focused, very committed, very consistent. Obviously we have great leadership with Katie Rutherford, Ellie Hines and Olivia Carpenter who have shown great leadership and then we have freshmen Calli and Brie Winans. Brie was a huge surprise and really helped us, and Audrey Wagoner is a former county champion. Our girls have been solid all year and they come in and have just had an exceptional season.

“The triple-A field, while at the top, is extremely loaded. Look at University, Morgantown and Cabell, I mean getting to the top three, that’s not something that’s happened in a long time. Getting into the top three will be a huge challenge, but we are in the race. We’re in that top five group, just like our boys and state meet on Saturday when things can get crazy, we like the stability of our team to go out there and maybe shock some people.

Even though the Big Reds will lose some quality seniors to graduation, Angelos firmly believes the PHS program must simply continue to stay the course.

“We will have to continue to develop runners who love the sport, who have talent and who want to dedicate time to it. » the coach pointed out.

“We’re proving with a lot of these kids like Brie Winans and Ricardo Salazar and a lot of them, we’re proving that we can develop runners and we’ll have to continue to do that.”