If Hurricane's girls and St. Albans' boys plan to go the distance in the Gazette/Friends of Coal Relays, they'll have to lean on their distance runners.

And judging by early results in the weekend meet, so far it's been so good.

Both the Redskins and Red Dragons tracked down titles in the 4x800-meter relay Friday - the first final event of the 74th Gazette/FOC Relays at Laidley Field. Six meet records were set during the opening day of the two-day meet under overcast skies and pleasant temperatures.

Hurricane, the defending Class AAA girls champion and top-ranked team in the RunWV.com state power rankings this season, and St. Albans, the No. 4 team in the boys AAA rankings, are the Kanawha Valley's top two threats to take home titles from the prestigious Relays.

The Redskins are in a dogfight atop the girls AAA standings after Friday's six final events. They have 22 points, with Jefferson, Preston and Elkins holding at 20. St. Albans also has 22 points after five final events in the boys AAA meet, which is good enough for third behind Jefferson (35) and Marietta, Ohio (30).

The Relays, which mirrors the upcoming state meet, resumes at 9 a.m. today with selected field events. The first running event - the 400 dash - starts at 10.

Some races were also brewing in the other divisions of the six-tiered meet.

In boys AA (after five of 18 events), Roane County leads with 32 points, trailed by Philip Barbour and Ravenswood with 28 each. Doddridge County has 46 points for a nine-point edge on Pocahontas County after six events in boys Class A.

In girls AA, Roane's 30 points leads Shady Spring (231/2) and PikeView (22) after five events. St. Marys is threatening to blow away the field in girls single-A with 56 points after five events, good for a 17-point lead on Doddridge.

Neither Hurricane nor St. Albans set a meet record in their respective 4x8s Friday, but their times were impressive nonetheless.

Hurricane's Sahara Assi, Alex Dent, Sarah Davis and Josie Crouch completed the course in 9 minutes, 32.96 seconds, which is about 31/2 seconds faster than the existing AAA state meet record, but fell about a second shy of the Gazette/FOC Relays mark set by Preston in 2007.

"This group has been training with each other for two, three years now,'' said Bill Posey, Hurricane's assistant coach in charge of distance runners. "They're very intense, very intelligent. They know what running's all about.

"They don't compare their times. They know where they fit in nationally. That's their focus. They want to be as good as they can be. That's why they do tempo runs when it's 18 degrees, like they did last January.''

If Hurricane's girls and St. Albans' boys plan to go the distance in the Gazette/Friends of Coal Relays, they'll have to lean on their distance runners.

And judging by early results in the weekend meet, so far it's been so good.

Both the Redskins and Red Dragons tracked down titles in the 4x800-meter relay Friday - the first final event of the 74th Gazette/FOC Relays at Laidley Field. Six meet records were set during the opening day of the two-day meet under overcast skies and pleasant temperatures.

Hurricane, the defending Class AAA girls champion and top-ranked team in the RunWV.com state power rankings this season, and St. Albans, the No. 4 team in the boys AAA rankings, are the Kanawha Valley's top two threats to take home titles from the prestigious Relays.

The Redskins are in a dogfight atop the girls AAA standings after Friday's six final events. They have 22 points, with Jefferson, Preston and Elkins holding at 20. St. Albans also has 22 points after five final events in the boys AAA meet, which is good enough for third behind Jefferson (35) and Marietta, Ohio (30).

The Relays, which mirrors the upcoming state meet, resumes at 9 a.m. today with selected field events. The first running event - the 400 dash - starts at 10.

Some races were also brewing in the other divisions of the six-tiered meet.

In boys AA (after five of 18 events), Roane County leads with 32 points, trailed by Philip Barbour and Ravenswood with 28 each. Doddridge County has 46 points for a nine-point edge on Pocahontas County after six events in boys Class A.

In girls AA, Roane's 30 points leads Shady Spring (231/2) and PikeView (22) after five events. St. Marys is threatening to blow away the field in girls single-A with 56 points after five events, good for a 17-point lead on Doddridge.

Neither Hurricane nor St. Albans set a meet record in their respective 4x8s Friday, but their times were impressive nonetheless.

Hurricane's Sahara Assi, Alex Dent, Sarah Davis and Josie Crouch completed the course in 9 minutes, 32.96 seconds, which is about 31/2 seconds faster than the existing AAA state meet record, but fell about a second shy of the Gazette/FOC Relays mark set by Preston in 2007.

"This group has been training with each other for two, three years now,'' said Bill Posey, Hurricane's assistant coach in charge of distance runners. "They're very intense, very intelligent. They know what running's all about.

"They don't compare their times. They know where they fit in nationally. That's their focus. They want to be as good as they can be. That's why they do tempo runs when it's 18 degrees, like they did last January.''

Crouch and Dent, of course, will play a large role in the success Hurricane has the rest of the weekend as they're among the favorites in everything from the open 400 to 3200.

A short while after Hurricane won the girls 4x8, St. Albans turned the trick in the boys AAA meet with a time of 8:08.21, more than 11 seconds faster than anyone in the state this season. The Red Dragons beat a solid field that included Marietta (Ohio) and Cabell Midland.

"They've shown it all year long,'' SA distance coach Jason Henley said of the group's potential. "We haven't really run our main four all year long. We've had a couple fill-in people. We never put all four out there on the track at the same time, and we felt pretty certain they were ready to go under 8:15 right now, so being under 8:10 was a plus. Our school record's 8:05, and it's been in place since '68 or '69, so that's the next thing we're shooting for. Of course, the goal has always been to win a state championship, and they're very focused on that.''

SA's 4x8 quartet of Thomas Osborne, Matt Searls, David Osborne and Andrew Bailey will also figure into their team's plans for the remainder of this weekend's meet in other events.

"Our goals are definitely higher this year,'' Henley said. "At different times this year, we've been ranked two, four or five in the RunWV power rankings, so we're a top-five team right now.

"If the distance runners come through with their end of the bargain, and if the sprinters, throwers and field event people come through, we've got a good shot to be able to be a top two, three team this year. And that's a big step for St. Albans High School. It's been a long time since we've been able to say that.''

Four of the six meet records set Friday came in Class A, which has been running a separate meet only since 2003.

They were provided by Cuylor Edgell of Doddridge (21-9 in boys long jump), Aaron Schneid of Wheeling Central (145-7 in boys discus), Charleston Catholic (8:37.55 in boys 4x800) and St. Marys (10:13.66 in girls 4x800).

Also, Capital's Shannon Hooper whirled the discus 139 feet, 4 inches in girls AAA and Marietta's Cody West cleared 6-9 in the boys AAA high jump.

Other first-day winners from the Kanawha Valley included three shuttle hurdle relay teams (Winfield boys AAA, Buffalo boys A, Charleston Catholic girls A) and David Caldwell of South Charleston in the AAA boys 3200.

The AAA boys pole vault was the final event to conclude Friday. It was still going past 11 p.m.

Reach Rick Ryan at 304-348-5175 or rickr...@wvgazette.com.