MARTINS FERRY – Shadyside’s girls and Martins Ferry’s boys used their overall depth to claim team titles during Saturday morning’s 10th annual Martins Ferry Cross Country Invitational on the sunny, but chill-filled Purple Riders’ 3.1-mile course high atop the Purple City.

The Tigers placed five of their runners in the top 15 to finish with 37 points, which was a whopping 30 better than second-place Edison’s 67. Linsly was third with 72, while Martins Ferry and Steubenville Catholic rounded out the top 5 with 78 and 93, respectively. Wheeling Central was the only other school with a full team and finished sixth with 167.

“We’ve got a lot of kids that are working hard right now,” Shadyside head coach Mike Coyne said. “They are continuing to get better with every meet.”

Shadyside junior Chloe Meholovitch was the overall runner up and led the Tigers in 20-minutes, 21.35-seconds.

“She is one of the most competitive people I’ve ever been around,” Coyne added. “The better the competition is, the better Chloe will be.”

Meholovitch was followed across the finish line by teammates in senior Gabby Kosky (4th, 21:52.99); freshman Jaylynne Johnson (6th, 22:17.41; freshman Aylah Albright (14th, 23:40.93) and sophomore Bayden Parr (15th, 23:46.22).

The Purple Riders’ victory on the boys side was a little closer, but more unexpected than anything due to some last-day injuries. They totalled 48 points, 11 more than Edison and Linsly which tied for second with 59. Indian Creek was fourth with 87 and Toronto fifth with 95.

“Last night I found out that two of our top three runners were injured and told by the doctor that they couldn’t compete,” Martins Ferry head coach Chrissy Lewis explained. “I went to the other guys and told them they needed to step it up today. They are all pretty close in practice anyway, so they really pushed hard and had a great day today.”

Leading the pack was junior Nicholas Miller (7th, 18:56.54). He was followed by junior Prestyn Callaway and freshmen William Liberatore and Matthew Shirley who crossed the finish line in 11th, 12th and 13th. Callaway’s time was 19:23.53, while Liberatore clocked out in 19:23.94 and Shirley 19:26.99. The other scorer was senior Gavin Reese (20th, 20:01.26).

Individually, the boys race came down to a near photo-finish while the girls race was a one runner race for the most part.

Brooke junior Gavin Scott overtook Linsly’s Jakob Schmidt-Weigand down the homestretch, eeking out the victory in a time of 16:37.33, which was 0.15-seconds ahead of the Cadets’ senior.

“This is my third time winning on this course,” Scott noted. “I won twice here in middle school. It’s one of the tougher courses.”

Scott said he led for most of the race, but Schmidt-Weigand kept it close.

“For the majority of the race we were side by side,” he explained. “He got ahead of me towards the end, but I caught him and was able to pull ahead for the win.”

Scott was very pleased with the time he ran, as well.

“This was nearly a PR (personal record) for me. For me to run like this on a course like this, I’m happy,” he added.

Placing third was Steubenville Catholic senior Cash Dobson (18:10.27), while Toronto senior Landon Grimes (4th, 18:19.39) and Edison senior Brock Koehnlein (5th, 18:43.19) rounded out the top 5.

In the girls division, Martins Ferry’s Alanna Williams took over where she left off in track season. The senior clocked out in 19:37.77 which was nearly 45 seconds better than Meholovitch. This is Williiams first season running cross country.

“Going to states and nationals last year against some really good competition has helped me a lot,” Williams said. “The weather conditions were great and I am very pleased with my time.”

Lewis is glad Williams decided to run cross country this fall.

“Alanna is a great addition to our team. I’ve been working the last few years on trying to get her to come out, but she decided to run this year and we’re really pleased to have her,” Lewis said. “We’re just trying to keep her ready for track because that’s her true love.”

Finishing third was Edison senior Josie Lesnansky (21:24.78), while Steubenville Catholic junior Claire Flannery was fifth in 22:00.91.