In 1A/2A girls, River were the runners-up, while Shadyside claimed the gold. On the boys’ side, Toronto were runners-up, and Steubenville Catholic Central were champions.

“Coming into today I was telling the boys last night, I wasn’t sure,” Catholic Central head coach Bob Stanko said. “I said ‘it’s wide open.’ I kind of thought it was going to be between us in Toronto, and it came down to that. We had to really buckle down the last event and had to win the 4×400, and waiting on the high jump results for a while was a little bit grueling, but the kids performed very well today. We flipped a couple of places from Wednesday, and that helps.

“Every point counts, and, you know, for years we’ve been telling our kids that — no matter what place you get, those points count, and zero’s don’t add. So they did an amazing job today.”

“This group has worked super hard all season, and all their hard work has paid off to win their OVAC title,” Shadyside head coach Ashley Visnic said. “This is the second consecutive year in a row they have won the 1A/2A title. This is a super young group as well, and my freshmen have stepped up and filled a lot of holes that we had in our program. This group should be super proud of how hard they’ve worked to earn this.”

In 3A, it was the Shenandoah girls who were champs, while Barnesville’s girls were runners-up. It was flipped on the boys’ side, with the Zeps taking second and the Shamrocks taking the top spot.

“Very thrilled here, the boys were locked in all week,” Barnesville head coach Dylan Rogers said. “We had to move some guys around. We even moved some guys around from the qualifying day to today. I couldn’t be more thrilled with the effort, and the mentality they came in with.

“I told them, all my years of coaching, one of the toughest parts is being mentally prepared for the week of OVACs, and they were locked in all week, ready to go, and I couldn’t be more proud of their effort, couldn’t be more proud of everything they did. Was it a perfect meet? No, and they knew it wasn’t gonna be a perfect meet. They were battle-tested, and it came down to the very last event, like a championship meet should. And our boys came out on top. Couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Up to 4A, Cambridge’s girls were runners-up and the Edison Wildcats were champions. In boys’ competition, Beaver Local were runners-up and St. Clairsville took home the team title.

Finally, in 5A, the Morgantown girls were runners-up and the Wheeling Park girls raised the trophy. On the boys’ side, Steubenville were runners-up and Morgantown claimed the gold.

“I just thought when you take away all the actual track things; it’s just the love and care that our team has for each other– they work hard, so hard every week and every day in practice, and they push each other and they care for each other,” Wheeling Park head coach Zach Phillips said. “I think that’s what can take you over the hump sometimes. It speaks volumes for where they’re at today and how they performed; it’s more just how close we are as a team and how they’ve pushed each other all year. They’ve made each other so much better.”

Though a team title eluded them, Steubenville is bringing home some hardware as Big Red’s Bri Hudson was named Most Outstanding Performer for girls field events, having set the OVAC record in the discus throw, finishing with a 144-09. Big Red’s Ziare Scurry was also named Most Outstanding Performer for boys track events, the junior setting new meet records in the 200-meter dash (22.58) and 400-meter run (48.38).

Shenandoah’s Braxton Barnett was named Most Outstanding Performer for boys field events, claiming gold in the boys long jump with a leap of 23-03.

As for Most Outstanding Performer for girls track events, there were co-winners this year, as Wheeling Park’s Molly Brinker and Martins Ferry’s Alanna Williams shared the honors.

Brinker won the 100-meter hurdles (15.26) and 300-meter hurdles (46.19) while Williams won the 1600-meter run (4:56.87) and 800-meter run (2:15.71).