PHILIPPI – The Buckhannon-Upshur Lady Bucs are your 2021 Big 10 Conference cross country champions!

And they accomplished that feat by the smallest of margins — one point — Thursday morning at Philip Barbour High School.

The Lady Bucs amassed 78 points, just one point ahead of second place Preston, who accumulated 79.

The Lady Bucs were aided to the win by a pair of top 10 finishes by Samantha Shreve and Mia Sappey. Shreve placed fourth with a time of 22:55.85 while Sappey ran eighth with a time of 23:26.30.

Both girls earned All-Conference First Team honors for their placements.

Buckhannon-Upshur had two more runners place in the top 20 as Miah Reger ran 16th with a time of 24:00.87 and Jessica Williams took 20th with a clocking of 24:20.70.

Both runners earned All-Conference Second Team honors.

Rounding out the team scoring for the Lady Bucs was Malia Bowers running 46th with a time of 27:22.13.

“I am super proud of how the team competed today,” remarked Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Taylor Stacy. “The girls fought hard to pull out that win by the smallest of margins. They ran against some really tough competition and showed they can hang up there with the best of them.”

Allie Martin of Preston won the individual championship with a time of 21:14.58 while Claudia Moore of Robert C. Byrd was second with a time of 22:40.33.

The Lady Bucs will run again next Thursday, Oct. 21, at the Region I Championships at Preston.

“I think this race will serve as a great confidence booster rolling into regionals next week,” concluded Stacy. “Next week at regionals is when it really matters. Today was a great accomplishment for the team though and they should be proud of themselves.”