The Class A Pocahontas County High School Track Teams traveled to the Greenbrier East Combined on Tuesday, April 19, and faced off against 15 boys and 15 girls teams and all from seven Class AA and AAA schools.

The Lady Warriors finished fourth with the following nine teams scoring: Class AAA Greenbrier East - 234 points, AA Oak Hill - 175, AAA Alleghany VA - 109, PCHS - 48, AA Greenbrier West - 44, AA James Monroe - 28, AAA Greenbrier East B - 25, AA Independence B - 4, and AA Westside - 3. The Warriors placed fourth with 10 teams scoring: Greenbrier East - 158, Oak Hill - 137, Alleghany VA - 120, PCHS - 119, Greenbrier West - 71, Independence - 44, Westside -16, James Monroe - 7, Greenbrier East B - 4, and Oak Hill B - 4.

The PCHS Boys jumped back into the RunWV Power Rankings this week at #8 with 21 points, just behind Richwood and Wheeling Central, who are tied for #6 with 40 points each. The boys rankings tightened this week with: #1 St. Marys - 97 points, #2 Doddridge - 71.33, #3 Williamstown - 67.33, #4 Charleston Catholic - 61.33 and #5 Buffalo - 46. The top five girls teams this week were: #1 Williamstown - 169.33, #2 Doddridge - 84.5, #3 St. Marys - 77, #4 Charleston Catholic - 73 and Wheeling Central - 25.75. The only top-five changes this week saw the Doddridge Boys jump from #4 to #2 and the Doddridge Girls move from #3 to #2.

Senior Evan Rose brought home the only gold medal for PCHS with a first in the discus - 131'7", which would have been second in class A last week. Rose was ranked #4 last week with a 125'8" previous best. Rose threw the shot 44'9.5" for silver, and shorter than his #4 ranked 45'6" best toss last week.

The girls best showing was a silver medal in the shuttle hurdles relay - 1:22.09 (senior Merandia Shinaberry, junior Lindsey Kinder, sophomores Samantha Walton and Olivia Workman).

Other silver medals won by the boys were: 4x400m relay - 3:42 (seniors Alex Rodriguez and Tanner Graham, juniors Bill Kelley and Curtis Pyles) which was under their #4 ranked 3:44.90 last week; and shuttle hurdles relay - 1:07.90 (senior Noah Pugh, juniors Jesse Taylor, Pyles, Kelley) which would have ranked them #9 last week, between Fayetteville and Tucker.

Freshman Fredricah Gardner continued her first year success with two bronze medals in the shot - 26'4" and discus - 80'4". Both throws were big increases for Gardner and moves her closer to top-10 rankings in both events.

Bringing home bronze medals for the boys were: 100m - 12.14 (Graham); 4x200m relay - 1:39.15 (Pugh, Kelley, sophomores Seth Painter and Kyler Doss), which would have been a #5 ranking last week; 4x800m - 9:18 (Rodriguez, Pyles, junior Sklylar Knisely, sophomore Parker White), which was 19 seconds faster than their already #6 ranked time; 110m hurdles - 17.89 (Pugh), which was slower than his #8 17.14 time; long jump - 17'1" (Taylor); and high jump - 5'6" (Kelley), which was two inches from a top-10 ranking.

Girls fourth place finishers were: 400m - 1:09.64 (sophomore Olivia Workman); and 4x400m - 5:03 (Workman, sophomore Claire Mossesso, freshmen Rachel McComb and Lindsey Myers).

Boys fourth place finishers were: 200m - 23.96 (Graham), which would have jumped his ranking from #7 to #3 last week with the .38 second improvement; 400m - 52.40 (Graham), which would have jumped him from #2 to #1 last week with the .20 second improvement; 4x100m relay - 48.36 (seniors Jesse Hoke and Seth Doss, Painter, Kyler Doss), which would have moved them into the rankings at #6 last week; and 300m hurdles - 45.60 (Pugh), which would have jumped him into the rankings at #9 last week.

The girls 4x100m relay - 59.33 (Walton, Kinder, sophomores Emily Gibson and Kristen Beverage) took fifth place, and the girls 4x200m relay - 2:12 (Beverage, Gibson, sophomore Ashley Peacock, Myers) took sixth place. Shinaberry took fifth place in the 300m hurdles - 1:02.18.

Rodriguez's sixth place finish in the 400m - 54.73 would have ranked him #9 last week, which indicates how competitive most events were with the Class AA and AAA athletes.

Andrew Shaffer, of Richwood, moved into the Class A Boys #1 Individual Power Ranking with 29 points, and D'Andra Swiger, of Doddridge, owns #1 with her 42 points.

Coaches Mike Knisely and Kay Wiley will take team members with qualifying stats to Charleston on Friday and Saturday, April 29-30, for the Gazette Relays at Laidley Field, a meet that often attracts more than 100 teams, including athletes from surrounding states.

The PCHS Boys (15 boys, 78 points) took third place last year in Class A, and the 2009 Boys (12 boys, 99 points) placed second. Graham had his best showing of his career last year and was #5 Class A High Scorer with 20.5 points while graduate Abe Rittenhouse was #2 with 30 points.

The 2007 PCHS Girls 4x200m relay team (Adrienne Nottingham, Nicole Barlow, Christine Shinaberry, Michelle Holstine) still holds the meet record of 1:53.15.

Additional current team members Noah Pugh, Evan Rose, Kyler Doss, Seth Painter, Bill Kelley, Alex Rodriguez, Parker White, Curtis Pyles and Jesse Taylor also placed last year.

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