Summers County multi-sport standout Avery Lilly has earned honorable mention all-state honors on the basketball court the last two years.
Saturday afternoon, Lilly raised the bar to first-team status, but not on the hardwood.
Needing a top-10 finish at the state cross country event held at Cabell Midland High School to be named first team all-state, Lilly used her normal late burst to finish ninth overall and secure the prestigious honor.
“I obviously started running cross country for basketball. Growing up in Summers County there is such a strong tradition of women’s basketball there,” Lilly said after a meet in late September. “I got into cross country for conditioning. The more I run it, the more I am like, this is fun.”
Fun has also afforded the Summers County senior a new opportunity at the next level if she so desires.
“Cross country has presented me with this beautiful opportunity to try a new sport and now I am getting opportunities to compete on the college level,” Lilly said that day. “That is an opportunity I had never thought of.”
Lilly entered the meet predicted to finish 14th overall, but there were signs that an all-state finish was clearly within reach.
Following a win at the Liberty Invitational, Lilly ran sixth at the Coalfield Conference meet battling AAA power Greenbrier East, along with AA stalwarts Shady Spring and Nicholas County. All three schools qualified for the state meet in their respective classes.
That momentum carried to the regional run where she was runner-up to eventual state champion Arabella Boggs from Charleston Catholic.
Lilly closed out her high school cross country career Saturday, not only with an all-state honor, but she also ran a personal best time of 21:31.
How much did the Bobcat senior improve over the last year at Cabell Midland? An incredible amount.
At the 2023 state meet, Lilly was 37th overall with a time that was just a tick under 23 minutes. In one year, she improved nearly 90 seconds.
On the boys side, Lilly’s teammate Dakota Pettry made it a double all-state day for the Bobcats finishing 20th to garner second team all-state recognition.
The other Region 3 runners for the girls were Sophie Mullens (29), Alyssa Bailey (37) and Reagan Raffo (41) from Richwood, along with Kaci Hatfield (35) from River View.
Tommy Wikel (32) and Brayden McPherson (44) were top-50 finishers in the boys race.
Braxton County repeated as the girls Class A champions with Boggs taking the individual title. St. Mary’s edged Charleston Catholic for the boys championship with Amos Kimble taking the Class A individual title.
Nicholas County finished fourth in the Class AA girls race, led by Haley Johnson (20) who ran her best race of the season to earn second team all-state honors. Region 3 champion Adrienne Truman (26), Madison Angus (28) and Shaelee Flannigan (38) all ran inside the top-50 for the Grizzlies with Angus also setting a new personal record.
Bre Crouse from Shady Spring was 21st and was joined by teammate Raelyn Carr (36). The Tigers finished in eighth place as a team.
Carli Spade (35) from PikeView and Kynzie Taylor (44) from James Monroe were also in the top-50 Saturday. The girls field consisted of 94 runners.
Shady Spring led the area teams in the AA boys event with a 5th place finish among a stacked field this year. PikeView was 10th.
Ethan Dowdy (19) led the Tigers in 19th-place to grab second team all-state recognition among a field of 98 runners. Dowdy was followed by Logan Malott (21), Eli Jordan (26), Caleb Rose (39) and David Northrop (46) who were all inside the top-50. Rose and Northrop both set personal records Saturday.
Regional champion Johnny Walkup (15) from Nicholas County was the top runner out of Region 3 with a strong run, while teammate Luke Barr was 20th overall. Both Grizzlies close stellar careers as second-team all-staters.
Liberty standout Jadon Acord finished 33rd, setting a new school record, while freshman Brody Lester from Westside was 41st.
The AA girls title went to Williamstown, while the individual champion was Herbert Hoover freshman Maysen Fletcher. Elkins was the AA boys champion paced by individual state champion Trevor George.
In the AAA girls event, Greenbrier East finished ninth, while Woodrow Wilson was 11th overall.
Luella Mansheim (47) and Kate Adkins (50) from Greenbrier East were the only two Region 3 runners in the top-50.
Greenbrier East standout and Region 3 AAA champion Neena McClintic could not compete for the Spartans due to illness.
On the boys side among the big schools, Woodrow Wilson was 10th and Greenbrier East ran 12th.
Vance Lindley (43) and Kyle Peters (45) were the top-50 finishers from the local area in a field of 101 runners.
University swept both AAA races with Ty Steorts grabbing his third straight individual title for the Hawks. Former Woodrow Wilson standout Aiden Kneeland who is now at Cabell Midland was the individual runner-up.
Samantha Shreve from Buckhannon-Upshur was the girls individual champion.
