PM Boys Harriers Return Everyone From State Title Team
With eight returning runners, the Parry McCluer High School boys cross country team will look to have a repeat of last season this fall. Last year, the Blues took home the Class 1 state title, their second in a row and their fourth in six years.
The Fighting Blues return their entire team from last season, including the core group of runners that won last year’s state title at Virginia Tech. The Blues have five runners who finished in the top 11 at last year’s state meet.
Kebryl Chandler, now a junior, was the Pioneer District and Region 1C champion and the runner-up in the state meet last fall. Seniors Josh Cooper and Logan Wheelock, will look to close their chapters as PM harriers on a high note. Wheelock and Cooper finished fifth and eighth, respectively, at last year’s state meet. Going into their sophomore years are Caleb Cooper, Sebastian George and Hinckley Lovelace. The younger Cooper and Lovelace earned all-state honors last fall by placing in the top 15 at the state meet, and George had a strong freshman year as PM’s sixth runner.
Junior Sam Carpenter and senior Caden Mason round out the returning group of runners for the Blues.
The Blues have no girls running, after their lone runner last year, Kyra Lee, graduated in the spring, following her 10th-place finish at the state meet last fall and an all-state indoor track season.
Optimistic about the boys’ team, PM head coach Chris Poluikis said, “Expectations are high. We are returning everyone, and the guys are in the best shape of their lives. They all had a great summer with their training.”
Poluikis, starting his 20th year at the helm, said the Blues have a deep squad with lots of experience, and they are also a “close group of friends who enjoy running with each other.”
The Blues added three new runners who are freshmen: Victor Poluikis and Kayleb Vassar, who have both been running with PM’s middle school team since sixth grade, and Matthew Cooper.
Competitively, Coach Poluikis expects Eastern Montgomery, a Pioneer District rival, to pose the biggest challenge in the Blues’ aspirations for another state title. “They returned all of their guys besides one, and they had two freshmen last year who had good spring [seasons],” said Poluikis. “All of their top three runners had good springs, too.” The Blues narrowly retained their district title last year against Eastern Montgomery, scoring 27 points to defeat the Mustangs’ 28. PM then beat EM by 13 points for the Region 1C crown.
Returning to help Poluikis is assistant coach Jacob Zimmerman. “He’s great to have and everyone likes him,” said Poluikis. “He helps with pacing, and sometimes we have the good cop/bad cop dynamic.”
Looking forward to the season, Poluikis said, “We’re just trying to play it safe and stay healthy. Some of the guys have even bigger goals than I do. I’ve never had so many runners who run this amount of weekly mileage, so I’m still learning how to manage that the right way.”
The Blues started the season this past Saturday with the Blacksburg Relays. (See separate story.) The next meet for PM, which has no home meets this season, will be the Knights Crossing Invitational at Green Hill Park in Salem, the location of this year’s Class 1 state meet, with Cave Spring playing host this Saturday, Sept. 6.
