RACHEL, W.Va. (WV News) — When the North Marion girls basketball team left Charleston in March, they returned to Rachel as the 2023 state champions.
Two weeks ago, the North Marion girls track and field team left Laidley Field in Charleston as the state runner-up.
The 2023 North Marion girls tennis team finished with a 21-2 record in dual matches — a program record on the girls side — and qualified for the state tournament.
And when Addie Elliott returned from the state track and field meet, she joined her cross country coach Keri Richardson as the only other female on the NMHS all-state wall who was a state champion in two sports. Richardson won state titles in cross country and track.
It’s those accomplishments, among others, that North Marion girls will look back on from this school year.
In basketball, the Huskies dropped their season opener to Wayne, but never lost again, winning 25 consecutive games on their way to winning the state title.
Junior Emma Freels’ buzzer-beating layup in the state semifinals lifted the Huskies to a 45-43 win over Ripley and advanced them to the Class AAA state championship, where they defeated Philip Barbour 88-60.
“That was a big shot,” North Marion girls basketball coach Mike Parrish said. “We’ve had some memorable games at the state tournament like that, and she got the shot. Normally she goes to the left, but she went to the right and made that layup to win that game.”
Senior guard Olivia Toland and Freels each scored 18 points in the Huskies’ state championship victory over the Colts.
According to MaxPreps, Toland averaged 23.7 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 3.8 steals per game, while Freels averaged 14.4 points, 4.3 assists, 2.2 steals and 2.1 rebounds per game. Elliott averaged 8.5 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game.
Toland and Freels both received first-team all-state honors. Elliott garnered all-state honorable mention honors this season.
Under Parrish, the Huskies have won five state titles, all but one of them in Class AAA. Before the 2023 state championship, their last state title was in 2018 (Class AA).
Winning a title this season required underclassmen to step up too.
“Were were young,” Parrish said. “We had Savannah Walls, which started for us as a freshman last year, and she was out all season. We had a group of sophomores that really came in and stepped up their game and played a big role for us in the win streak that we had and in winning the state championship.
“That was Kathryn Carson, Kierrabelle Harbert and Aubrey Hamilton.”
The North Marion girls track and field team was the Class AA state runner-up. Rylee Delovich won the state championship in the 100 (15.24) and 300 hurdles (46.21).
The North Marion girls 4x102.5 shuttle hurdle team consisting of Elliott, Isabella Richards, Maylie Bland and Delovich won the state title as well in a time of 1:05.88.
Bland also won the state championship in the pole vault by clearing a height of 9-00.
In cross country, North Marion’s Taylor Hess placed 10th (20:49.31) at the 2022 WVSSAC Class AA Cross Country Championships on Oct. 29 at Cabell Midland. She has finished in the top 10 at state all three years.
Hess has qualified for the state meet in cross country, swimming and track throughout her high school career.
“She is very naturally talented, and she’ll admit she doesn’t always like to put in the work, but she does work for it because she does go to practice and do everything she needs to do for all three sports her entire year,” Richardson said of Hess. “And she does summer swimming, so she never has an offseason. I think that helps in her ability to make it to states; she’s always working.”
But last fall, Elliott, before winning state titles in basketball and track and field, also qualified for the state cross country meet, where she placed 43rd. She was the lone senior on a team that nearly qualified for the state cross country meet.
“Taylor was the only girl that made it two years in a row, and then I got Taylor and Addie there this year,” Richardson said. “We’re hoping this coming season to take the whole team. We’ve been the first one not to make it, team-wise, the past couple of years, and we have a lot of young girls. We’re hoping that this year coming up will be our year to get the whole team there.”
On the tennis court, Mackenzie Fluharty advanced to the semifinals of the Big 10 Tennis Tournament and was a member of the girls tennis team that won the regional title and qualified for state.
“We had really good senior leadership,” Huskies tennis coach Dean Brown said. “Those three seniors (Mackenzie Fluharty, Josie Fluharty and Emily Gabor) did a lot of work in the offseason and they were always willing to spend extra time after practice, on weekends, whatever it took to get better. They really worked hard all the time on different parts of their game they were weak at. They improved in those areas also.”
The only team to beat them in dual matches? Oak Glen, but North Marion was able to defeat the Golden Bears later in the season.
“For instance, Josie Fluharty and Mya Besedich — her partner in doubles — they lost 8-1 to this team (Oak Glen) earlier in the year, and they beat them 8-1 in regionals,” Brown said. “It was a big improvement from when we played them earlier in the season.”
In another doubles match at regionals, Gabor and Megan Darrah rallied from an early deficit to defeat their opponents from Oak Glen, 8-6.
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