ELKINS — Samuel Walker finished in lucky number 13th at the Big 10 cross country championship Thursday to pace the Buckhannon-Upshur High School boys to a sixth-place overall finish.
Walker finished the 5K course in 20:25. Julius Hobbs was the next Buccaneer runner across the line, with a time of 21:31, good for 37th place.
After that came a clump of B-U runners finishing between 22:00 and 22:30. Those included Harrison Walker in 46th, Ethan Cutright in 51st, Tanner Hardman in 55th and Cory Hamner in 56th.
Shortly behind that group were Spencer Vaught in 66th in Caleb Hamner in 72nd. A slew of B-U runners finished toward the tail of pack, including Andrew Dalheim, LJ Wyatt, Noam Keith, Jackson McNeish, William McCauley, Logan Wyatt, Patrick Nanners, Garrett Summers and Nathaniel Beer.
The top five runners counted toward the team score. B-U finished sixth with a total placing of 191 and average time of 21:43. Fairmont Senior won the team title, while Bridgeport finished second with overall individual champion Jackson Jacobs.
Preston finished third, Philip Barbour fourth and East Fairmont fifth. Coming in behind the Bucs were Elkins, North Marion, Lewis County, Robert C. Byrd, Grafton and Liberty.
On the girls side, Maggie Queen led the way with a 55th-place finish and a time of 29:27. Rounding out the Lady Buccaneer runners were Tiffany Williams in 60th (29:55), Molly Fox in 66th (31:06), Kassidy Wilfong in 71st (32:03), Kellie Casto in 73rd (32:16) and Jenny Williams in 74th (32:20).
The B-U team finished 11th of 11. Bridgeport won the Big 10 girls title. The rest of the top 10 were Preston, Fairmont Senior, East Fairmont, Elkins, Grafton, Liberty, North Marion, RCB and Lewis County.
