Mountain Ridge No. 1 in boys poll, Southern No. 2
Jan. 3—The boys Area Top 5 remained the same for the second straight week, with Mountain Ridge topping the poll, followed by Southern, Allegany, Keyser and Hampshire.
That sets up a battle of Nos. 1 and 2, as the top-ranked Miners head to Oakland to take on the Rams tomorrow night. Third-ranked Alco makes the same trip to Southern on Friday.
The girls poll also remained the same. Like the Mountain Ridge boys, Petersburg is first for the fourth consecutive week. Frankfort is just behind at No. 2, followed by Fort Hill, Allegany and Hampshire.
Week 4's Area Top 5 was voted on by area sportswriters Jeff Landes, Kyle Bennett and Alex Rychwalski (Cumberland Times-News), Chapin Jewell (Mineral News-Tribune) and Nick Carroll (Hampshire Review).
The Mountain Ridge boys went 1-0 last week, toppling No. 5 Hampshire, 60-42, in a matchup of ranked teams to improve to 5-0 on the season. The Miners received 4 of 5 first-place votes to garner 24 points.
Southern collected the other nod for the top spot after going 2-0 at the Southern Snowball Classic to improve to 4-1. The Rams won a thriller over Thomas Jefferson, 58-54, before a rout of Uniontown, 72-57, for the championship to earn 21 poll points.
Allegany was third with 14 points and Keyser was fourth with 11. Both squads were idle last week. The Campers are 3-1 on the season and the Golden Tornado are 4-1.
Hampshire (3-4) checked in fifth with five votes after falling to Mountain Ridge in its only bout last week.
The Petersburg girls remained undefeated at 8-0 after being off. The Vikings received 3 of the possible five first-place votes for 23 points to just edge out Frankfort.
The Falcons tallied 22 points and two nods for the top spot. They defeated Braxton County, 67-39, on the road to up their record to 7-0.
Fort Hill (4-1) and Allegany (3-1) stayed at Nos. 3 and 4 after being off last week.
Keyser went 1-2 in its tournament in Orlando to drop its record to 4-4. The Golden Tornado faced tough competition, routing Merritt Island Christian (Florida) and stumbling against Avon (Ohio) and Gulliver Prep (Florida).
Union (4-2) received one vote as the only team in either the boys or girls poll to garner points outside the Area Top 5. Its the first time Union has appeared on a ballot so far this season.
Alex Rychwalski is a sports reporter at the Cumberland Times-News. Follow him on Twitter @arychwal.
