CAMBRIDGE — The Ohio Valley Athletic Conference’s Cal Pokas Cross Country Championships might as well be renamed the ‘Morgantown Invitational.’

The schools within the city of Morgantown flexed their muscle once again at the annual conference championships held Saturday morning at Cambridge High School.

The University boys won the overall title with 30 points, while the Morgantown girls claimed the female championship with 22 points. For good measure, the Trinity Christian girls captured the small-school division title to make it three championship trophies headed back to Motown.

Despite those schools’ domination, several other schools put forth a strong showing, too.

The other boys’ class champions were St. Clairsville (4A), Barnesville (3A) and Southern Local (1A/2A).

The other girls class champions were St. Clairsville (4A) and Fort Frye (3A).

University’s Ryan Blohm captured the overall individual title with a sizzling time of 15:34. He was 13 seconds ahead of teammate Drew Zundell.

On the girls’ side, Claire von Boetticher made it a University sweep when she claimed the girls’ title with a blistering 18:23. She was 12 seconds better than Morgantown’s Sophie Renner.

BOYS

5A

While University put forth an impressive total, Wheeling Park, which has been impressive all fall, was a strong second with 53 points.

The Patriots were led by Ben Ashmore, who placed third overall in 15:59.40.

Actually, all seven of the Park runners earned All-OVAC.

Jonah Nizami was sixth overall in 16:01, while Redick Moore was ninth in 16:10. Seth Franke posted an 11th place finish in 16:15 and Isaak Nizami, who was the last score toward Park’s 53 points, was 25th in 17:01.

Austin Musilli (29th) and Brady Amico (30th) rounded out the all-conference runners.

4A

St. Clairsville repeated as champions in its class and in the process won its 13th title in school history. All of those have come under head coach Tony Ciroli’s watch.

The latest title was captured with 258 points, which was 222 points fewer than runner-up Cambridge.

“All of our guys know how important the OVAC is,” Ciroli said. “I am not trying to downplay any of the invitationals or the smaller meets we go to, but those are places where we learn how to race, so we’re able to be prepared for the OVAC, district, regional and state. We knew we had to race and race hard and the kids really listened and executed the plan perfectly.”

As has been the case all season, St. Clairsville was led by junior standout Ben Shields, who continues to turn in impressive efforts.

Shields posted a 14th place overall finish to win the class title in the process with a solid time of 16:19.

Other scorers for the Red Devils included Sawyer Bonnette (34th place), Caleb Bryniarski (66th), Blake Horan (93rd) and Evan Yost (115th).

Other area All-OVAC performers in the class included Weir’s Josh Duffy (16:54), who placed 20th.

Oak Glen’s Nick Gallo placed second in the class and 18th overall with a time of 16:46.

3A

Barnesville has made winning OVAC cross country titles a rite of fall during the tenure of veteran head coach Mark Brown. Add another chapter to their history as the Shamrocks rang up 283 points, which was 65 points fewer than runner-up Bellaire.

The win allowed the Shamrocks to go back-to-back and marked the fourth in school history on the boys side.

“We’ve been saying ‘back-to-back’ all week leading up to the meet and actually it’s been our goal since August,” Brown said. “We consider (the OVAC) our biggest meet of the regular season and we’ll now work toward our main goal of qualifying to the regional. We’re extremely pleased with all of of our runners. Almost all of them ran their best races of the season.”

The Shamrocks were led by All-OVAC performer Conner Starr. He was the first Shamrock to cross the line and he did so in 16:57 to garner 21st overall.

Other Barnesville scorers included: Connor Warrington (65th place), Logan Dodd (75th), Braedon Willis (78th) and Vincent Phillips (116th).

Magnolia’s Landon Davis, who was 28th in 17:04, was the only other runner in this class to earn All-OVAC.

1A/2A

Southern Local — still a relative newcomer to the OVAC — claimed its first OVAC title in the sport with a total of 318 points. The Indians were 87 points better than runner-up Wheeling Central.

The Maroon Knights, however, produced the individual champion in the class.

Aiden Scott — the reigning small-school West Virginia state champion — broke 16 minutes by a tenth of a second en route to the class title and a fifth-place overall finish. He was the only runner from the smallest division to finish inside the top 30.

GIRLS

Class 5A

Along with the city of Morgantown’s production, a handful of area runners earned All-OVAC distinction.

Included are John Marshall’s Rilee Storm, who turned in a solid 11th place effort in a time of 20:06 and Sierra Taylor, who placed 22nd in 20:42.

4A

St. Clairsville finished with a score of 297 despite producing nary an All-OVAC runner. The Red Devils’ total was just a point better than runner-up Edison.

The championship is the third straight for St. Clairsville and its 11th in school history and breaks a tie with John Marshall for the most conference titles in girls CC of all time.

“The girls ran well today,” Ciroli said. “The girls are really coming along and now we’ll shift focus to the OVCCL (next week) and then into the district the following week.”

St. Clairsville’s five scorers in the meet were Luci Banks (33rd overall), Kendal Sall (56th), Rami Padilla (91st), Alaina Thornburg (96th) and Mattie Arbenz (106th).

Other area runners on the All-OVAC listing from this class included: Edison’s Josie Lesnansky, who was the class champion with a time of 20:31, which allowed her to place 18th overall; Weir’s Naomi Young, who crossed in 25th with a time of 20:49; Oak Glen’s Hannah Kliner, who placed 26th in 20:49 and Union Local’s Faith Moore, who placed 27th in 20:53.

T-L Photo/SETH STASKEY
SHADYSIDE SENIOR Kenzy Beckett races to a 10th-place finish in Saturday’s OVAC Cross Country Championship at Cambridge High School. She was the Class 1A/2A champion.

T-L Photo/SETH STASKEY
ST. CLAIRSVILLE junior Ben Sheilds runs toward an All-OVAC finish in the cross country championship meet held Saturday morning. He led the Red Devils to the team title in 4A.

3A

Fort Frye, which is a very youthful and talented squad, finished with 184 points to edge Barnesville by 33 points. The title is the fifth all time and second straight for the Cadets.

Other area runners to earn All-OVAC in the class included: Barnesville’s Aubrey Johnson, who placed 23rd in 20:42 and Bellaire’s Bethany McElfresh, who placed 29th in 21:02.

1A/2A

Shadyside, which was the only school other than Trinity to field a full girls’ team in the class, was led by the small-school champion in senior Kenzy Beckett. She continued her impressive campaign by posting a 10th place finish in a time of 20:02.