PARKERSBURG - A former Waverly resident, who moved to Nevada five years ago, returned home Saturday to win the Parkersburg News and Sentinel 2-Mile Race for women.
Stacie Hall, 17, now hails from Henderson, Nev., but "grew up here and then when I was going into seventh grade, we moved out there for my dad's work."
Hall, who would have attended Williamtown High School if she had stayed here, will be starting her senior year in Nevada soon. "But I'm hoping to go to college back here somewhere," she said.
Saturday was Hall's second 2-Mile try. "I ran in it last year and liked the course pretty well, so I decided to do it again this year," she said.
This time, Hall dominated after the first mile, winning by almost 22 seconds over second-place Rachel Morris, also 17, of Parkersburg by a 12:28.3 to 12:50.0 margin. Nicole Dent, 15, of Vienna came in third with a time of 12:57.2.
Hall said she "felt good" running Saturday. "And I got to run with my brother today; he kind of pushed me pretty good. He picked me up about mile 1, and drilled my butt in the ground the whole way.
"All in all, I'm pretty happy with the way my race went."
Especially since Hall "knocked about 10 seconds off my time from last year, which was in the high 12:30s."
For Hall, who runs track and cross country in high school, her fastest two-mile time "is right under 12 minutes."
On Saturday, Hall "was in front most of the time," although, she added, "when we first took off, there were a couple girls that were right there. But I just kept going with it, and right when we got to the mile marker, I pretty much pulled away right there."
Then, she had "to go watch my dad finish the Half Marathon."
In fact, Hall's dad was who got her started in running. "He's big into running," she said. "He's run the Parkersburg (News and Sentinel) Half Marathon a lot a lot of times. He's run with the River City Runners and so I'm just kind of following in his footsteps.
"Hopefully, someday I'll be half the runner he was - that's my goal."