Tygarts Valley competes in first-ever cross country meet
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LOST CREEK – The Tygarts Valley cross country team made school history this past weekend by becoming the first-ever squad from the school to compete in a high school cross country meet.
The unit, which consists of just three members, Tarren Bennett, Holden Sharp and Blake Channell, is in its first year of existence at the school. And although the season for most high school cross country teams started in August, the Bulldogs’ inaugural meet of the season was delayed.
“We had a huge interest in middle school track last year and we knew that many of those kids didn’t participate in other fall sports, so we decided to start a cross country team at Tygarts Valley,” TVHS Athletic Director Amanda Bell told The Inter-Mountain. “The start of our season was delayed because we couldn’t start practice on time until we found a coach and he was approved by the Board of Education. So we were just pushed back a little.”
The Bulldogs’ debut came at South Harrison High School, and Bennett finished the race in a time of 27:47. Sharp ran the course in 29:33 and Channell in 35:39.
Tygarts Valley cross country coach Rick Sharp said he couldn’t be more proud of his team’s effort in their first-ever meet.
“I was very pleased with their performance,” Sharp said. “It was new to all of them and they had to learn a lot of new things, but the guys put forth their best effort and ran really hard. They overcame a lot of things and it was an awesome day.”
Sharp also coaches middle school track at Tygarts Valley, and said all three of his cross country runners, who are all freshmen, worked hard to prepare for their season debut.
“We’ve been training throughout the county,” Sharp said. “We have run some at the top of Cheat Mountain and some other tough places that helped us prepare for the season. It’s great that we get to go out and experience nature and the beauty of what our state has to offer while we are training. Every day the kids run almost 3.5 to 4 miles, so they are putting the work in.”
Sharp said his runners will continue to increase their workload as the season goes along, and he feels that the future is bright for cross country at the school.
“Cross country is a lifelong sport and these kids have already committed to running during the off-season,” Sharp said. “I’m really excited to see them improve the next three years and I think there are big things ahead for cross country at Tygarts Valley High School. We have a lot of distance runners coming up from the middle school track team the next two years, so I really see this blowing up at Tygarts Valley and us being really, really competitive in the next two to three years.”
The Tygarts Valley Middle School track team went from having five runners in 2024 to 32 last season.
Bennett, Sharp and Channell will return to the cross country trail with a pair of meets scheduled for this week. The Bulldogs will run at Clay-Battelle on Thursday before traveling to Braxton County on Saturday.