MORGANTOWN – The Trinity Christian High School cross-country team enters the 2026 season with plenty of excitement and goals of improving on a strong 2025.
Both the Warriors boys and girls teams took home runner-up finishes at the 2025 Class A state meet after strong showings from multiple runners.
The most exciting thing for head coach John Barnett and his team coming into 2026 is the fact that every single runner will return for TCS, who are poised to contend for titles once again.
“We’re very excited coming into this season bringing everyone back on the boys and girls sides,” Barnett said. “We’ve even added four runners to the boys team that came up and a few more on the girls side as well. We will see how everything shakes out after summer ends, but we can’t wait to get the season going and build on what we did last year.”
The boys program captured both the Class A Region I title and the 1A-3A OVAC title en route to the runner-up finish at the state meet in 2025.
“We took a good step on the boys side,” Barnett said. “Obviously we’ve had success at the conference, region, and state level on the girls side in the past and recent years, but the boys were able to get it done last year and take a huge step forward and hope to take it one step further this season.”
Miles Steptoe, who finished sixth at the state meet last season, will be the lone senior on the roster.
Five other runners who placed in the top 20 at the state level will join Steptoe again in 2026.
Jake Stephens (sophomore), Mason Melohn (junior), and Ben Hancox (sophomore) finished 13th, 14th, and 15th in 2025, respectively. Junior Harper Jacquez took home 18th, with returning sophomore Channing Baldwin securing 20th for the runner-up Warriors.
“Miles will be our senior leader, and we expect him to be strong for us again, especially being his senior season,” Barnett said. “We have a couple of newcomers as well who we are excited about.”
Senior Bri Blake will lead the girls side after a sixth-place finish in the state at the 2025 girls meet.
Junior Lauren Williams captured 11th in the state last year, with rising sophomore Sephora Rhodes securing 16th.
“Bri had that leadership role thrust upon her after her sophomore season, and coming into her junior year last year, she fully embraced it,” Barnett said. “I’m excited to see what she can do as an athlete and a leader for us this season.”
