When Colleen Lookabill entered Mullens Middle School, she didn’t know running cross country was even a sport.
By the time she walks across the stage next spring and receives her high school diploma, Lookabill will do so as the most decorated girls cross country runner to attend Wyoming East.
“I don’t have a real reason why I started running cross country. My friend introduced it to me,” Lookabill explained. “I didn’t even know it was a sport at the time. I was going to do volleyball, but then I started (running).”
Although cross country can be mentally taxing and a brutal sport physically, it seemed to fit Lookabill perfectly.
“When I was little I played soccer, so I always liked to run,” Lookabill said. “Cross Country was something different than the other sports. It was something you did on your own.”
Lookabill wasted no time making a name for herself against high school level competition.
“I went to the state meet my freshman year and I was the first girl at East to ever run there. That was something big for me,” Lookabill said. “My sophomore year I feel like I would have went again and our team would have went to states, but the Board of Education shut us down because of Covid where we were in the red on the map.”
A seventh place finish at the regional meet as a freshman secured her position in the state meet. Last year she made her second trip to the big show by finishing fourth in the regional.
Lookabill’s competitive fire has not only made her an outstanding runner, it has also made her a key contributor on the highly successful Wyoming East girls basketball team.
“I am very competitive, so when I am at practice, (head) coach (Randall) McKinney puts me up against the boys. They would always run their mouth at me, so I would try my hardest to keep up with them,” Lookabill said.
Now Lookabill has her eyes set on another Wyoming East record.
“She will start out the preseason ranked 39 or 38 (in the state) which gives her a chance to move up and be the best (overall) runner ever at Wyoming East,” McKinney said.
Jacob Ellison currently holds the school record by finishing 32nd at the state meet.
“I am hoping it is something that I can do this year. I am training for it,” Lookabill said. “We are running longer miles to see if that will help build more stamina. I will have to stay mentally strong and when it gets tough, keep going and be even stronger.”
Lookabill is the only runner returning this year that has state tournament experience for East on both the boys and girls side.
However, Raylee Adkins just barely missed the state meet last year after finishing 13th in the regional run and she is back to flank Lookabill.
“I think we have a good chance to make it to states as a team. We have a lot of new runners, so they are hungry for it,” Lookabill said. “Taylor McKinney is back running as a senior and she ran with me in middle school. She was part of my 8th grade team when we won the county (championship).”
Junior Lexi Wikel, freshmen China Lambert and Evelyn McKinney round out the girls team and McKinney expects them to get better as the year progresses.
Last year only two girls teams qualified for the state meet. McKinney is convinced his team has the capability to capture one of those positions and become the first girls team from Wyoming East to qualify for the state meet.
“Nicholas County and Shady Spring are tough every year. Last year we finished third behind Shady Spring by seven points,” McKinney recalled. “That is just a couple of spots. The girls have been close for three years.”
The road to the state meet will be a difficult one on the boys side for Wyoming East who finished fourth in the regional last year.
With Ellison now gone as a result of graduation, the leadership roles fall on three seniors, Noah Cameron, Cody Whitt and Elijah Cameron.
“We have some seniors that have gotten better every year and hopefully this is the year they make that jump and go from 21 or 22 minutes down to 19 or even 18 minutes,” McKinney said.
If the seniors can make that jump, the Warriors could surprise some people thanks to help from a strong middle school program at Pineville.
“We have a lot of young kids that have come up from Pineville that did really well last year. Right now in practice, they are leading the pack for the boys,” McKinney said. “Brayden Hoosier and Lucas Kennedy have been strong so far and we have a basketball player that came out this year, Tommy Wikel, that has looked good.”
Sophomores Jackie Trent and Iain Furman, along with freshman Alex Castreel are also expected to be in the mix this year on the boys side.
“Once they learn the pace and how to race, they will get better and better,” McKinney said about his young runners. “Hopefully by October, we can be one of the top-3 teams in the regional meet.”
Wyoming East will kick off the season by running the Chik-Fil-A Invitational in Beckley Aug. 27.
