— Story by Daniel Woods
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — For many second-year cross country coaches, a season with less than enough players to compete as a team would seem to be a year turned toward program-building. For Trinity Christian’s John Barnett, the 2020 campaign is instead shaping up to be a program launcher.
With three individuals headed to the state cross country meet, each with the pedigree and opportunity to finish among the all-state ranks, the Warriors look well on the way to returning to the success the program enjoyed less than a decade ago.
The most successful period of Trinity cross country was led on the girls’ side by Barnett’s oldest daughter Abbie and today, his younger daughter Jenna leads the way as just a freshman. Despite a late start to the season due to COVID-19 restrictions in Monongalia County, her mark has been made across cross country circles in West Virginia, taking home a second place finish at the OVAC conference championships before once again landing in the runner-up spot on the podium at last week’s regional meet.
“I think it’s pretty cool that I get to go as a freshman and experience this,” she said, “We’ve worked pretty hard and we’ve wanted to go and that we put in the effort to do it and that even though we’re a small school we’re capable of doing what all these other schools are able to do.”
Joining her in competing for all-state honors in the girls’ race will be sophomore Sophia Pancoast, a sixth-place finisher in the regional meet. Inexperienced as a runner coming into high school, she’s taken to the sport quickly and will look to push her younger teammate once again in Ona.
History will be made in the boys’ race as junior Peyton Dixon will become the first male Trinity runner to compete at the state level. His progression has been steady over the past three years and he is ready to make that leap into the conversation among the best competitors in class A.
Dixon said, “I hope that I can inspire others to try and go out, like the freshman that are coming up, to go and try hard so we can get our team down to states.”
His coach agrees that Dixon’s qualification is a major step in the program’s progression and could be used as a tool to build out a boys’ team that has struggled with numbers saying, “I think it’s going to definitely encourage other boys to come out and see what he’s accomplished and to feel that they can be a part of that and accomplish something special and get a team to states.”
Team competition at the state meet is one of the long-term goals within the program for both coach and runner among the Warrior squad, with Coach Barnett stressing the added element to the races having a full team provides.
In the meantime, the three runners headed to Cabell County this weekend maintain a team mentality of their own, pushing and leading one another throughout the season and they’re ready to see the fruits of their labor pay off.
“We all pace each other, even though we really have no one else, so we push each other.” Jenna Barnett said.
According to her father and coach, that mentality is getting ready to pay off on Saturday for all three of his runners but also for the program moving forward.
“I think this year was a definite springboard for the future. We have a great group of freshmen coming in next year on the boys and girls side. I think we’re going to spark some interest from people who maybe ran in the past and had given it up when they got to high school to return to running again. I think it’s definitely a major hurdle in building the program,” he said.
Regardless of Saturday’s result in the Class A state cross country meet, the three competitors from Trinity Christian have a lot to be proud of and a lot more to look forward to.