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By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
Best times and best finishes made it a positive day for the Calhoun Middle-High School cross country teams, yet it was also a day of "so close yet so far."
Led by Justin Gerwig's 11th-place finish, the Calhoun High School boys team took 11th place in the prestigious Chik-Fil-A meet at Mineral Wells with a total of 229 points.
The Red Devils were oh-so-close to finishing in the top 10 but it was not to be.
Calhoun was a mere three points behind perennial cross country power Shady Spring, which had 226. Oak Glen was only 10 points ahead of the Red Devils with 219 while LKC powerhouse Ritchie nipped Calhoun by 19 with 210.
On the other hand Calhoun blitzed the 12th-place team, Belpre, Ohio, which had 290.
Gerwig's 11th-place finish was backed by Zach Hanshaw at 35th, Josh Parsons 52nd, Cai Clothier 62nd and Anthony Richards 69th.
Gerwig, a junior in his first year running cross country, had a time of 18:50. It was his best time of the year and had it not been for a slip near the finish line he could have finished in the top 10 since Ritchie's John Perry was one second ahead at 18:50.
Hanshaw posted a season-best 20:41 as did Parsons at 22:01.
Clothier fought leg pains throughout the race and finished at 23:27. He had a 20:46 in the season-opening Autumn Classic at St. Marys on Aug. 30. Richards, too, was slightly slower than the season-opener with a 24:43 compared to a 24:37.
On the girls side Anna Sampson led the way with a 22:59 for 19th place. Her time was slightly improved over the Autumn Classic.
She was backed by Tracy King at 29:10 for 67th place while Maria Kisner had a 34:47 for 84th and Athena Wagoner with a 36:15 for 87th.
The frustrating part for the girls team was that it got no score since it did not have five runners finish the race after Carrie Graffius suffered a knee injury while on the course.
Two other Calhoun runners did not compete. Barbara Richards did not have in the requisite 14 practice sessions and Rochelle Gerwig was kept from competition since she had a volleyball match Saturday evening. She is a member of the Red Devils volleyball team and it was in a match at Wirt County.
On the middle school side sixth-grader Monica Heiney ran the course in 16:45 which was good for 166th place in 211-girl race.
William Baker had the top finish for the middle school boys with a time of 14:43 which was good for 169th place in the 217-boy field.
Hunter Thomas ran 16:11 for 199th place while David Overbay finished at 16:48 for 204th place while Cody Parsons was 214th with a time of 19:45.
Calhoun returns to action Tuesday afternoon at the Doddridge Invitational. | 
