Cross Country Bucs win Forest Festival Invitational as they place three runners in the top four

ELKINS –The Buckhannon-Upshur Buccaneers put three runners in the top four at the Forest Festival Cross Country Invitational Saturday morning as the team won the eight-team event.

In a race with 61 runners, B-U’s Jordan Gillum placed second with a time of 19:16.34, Jack Waggy took third place with a clocking of 19:44.49 and Reis Leonard placed fourth a time of 20:15.97.

The trio helped the Bucs to a first-place finish as they easily won the invitational with 34 points.

Doddridge County was a distant second with 76 points while Lewis County was third with 84.

Slate Swiger of Lewis County won the race with a time of 18:32.40.

The two other Bucs scoring both had top 15 finishes as Joey Nolte was 11^th with a time of 21:14.73 and Brycen Allen was 14^th with a time of 21:32.22.

The other Bucs running were Owen Cutright in 16^th (21:40.66), Jeremy Allen in 39^th (24:17.94), Brandon Landis in 44^th (25:11.88), Weldon Zirkle in 48^th (25:38.04), Ryan Tenney in 54^th (27:56.49) and Ryan Dowell in 54^th (27:56.49).

“I am really proud of the boys, of their overall performance as a team and as individuals,” stated Buckhannon-Upshur Taylor Stacy. “Anytime you almost get all of your top five runners in the top 15 you know you’ve had a good day.”

The Bucs will run again Saturday in Kingwood at the Big 10/Cardinal Conference Challenge.