TENNERTON — After a long, strenuous season for the Buckhannon-Upshur Middle boys and girls track teams, the hard work is paying off. Eight boys and girls are headed to Huntington for the state’s first ever “Best of the Best: WV Middle School Invitational” at Huntington High School. The middle school boys team finished third in the Mid-Mountain 10 Conference meet on Monday night, while the girls team finished fifth in the regular season wrap-up.
Headed to Huntington for the boys team are Sabastian Rosencrance in the 100-meter hurdles with a season best time of 16.28 seconds and the shuttle hurdles team of Kyler Baisden, Kadeen Edwards, Bentley Jones, and Rosencrance with a best time of 40.96 seconds.
On the girls side, individual qualifiers included Ella Whitehair, who qualified for the 800 and 3200-meter races with season bests of 2:27.90 and 12:04.26 respectively. Hayden Anderson qualified in the high jump with a height of 4’8”. Anderson and Whitehair also make up half of the qualifying girls 4×400 meter relay with Audrey Johnston and Lily Lewis rounding out the team. Their season best time was 4:45.22.
“It has been an incredible season for our young runners this year,” said girl’s head coachJustin Bowers. “I can’t tell you how proud I am of the willingness of these athletes to show up every day, work hard, and then watch the results pay off. To be taking eight of them to the first Middle School state meet is a big deal.”
Whitehair also completes her middle school track career by breaking two more school records in the 800-meter (2:27.90) and 1600-meter (12.04.26) races. She already holds the 1600-meter record from the 2024 season with a time of 5:38.74. “Ella is a picture of what it means to grow,” said Bowers. “We set some very clear goals over the past couple of years and she’s walking out of Middle School with three very difficult school records to her name. The 800 record was nearly 40 years old. Her dedication and coachableness have led to some great success.”
The Best of the Best: WV Middle School Invitational will kickoff Friday with field events beginning at 4:30 pm and running events at 5 p.m.
(Courtesy of Justin Bowers)
