WV MetroNews
The Voice of West Virginia
I’m off for a couple of days. The commentary will return on Wednesday. Dave Wilson is filling in as host of Talkline on Friday and Monday.
Hop
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— By David Walsh
The Spring season for the Marshall men’s golf team will go down as the Sun Belt Conference’s best one-year turnaround.
The Thundering Herd went from 13th place in the 2023 SBC Championship to a tie for third in the 2024 tournament completed Thursday at the par-72, 7,190-yard Annandale Golf Club in Madison, Miss.
Marshall tied for third in stroke play in the tournament to earn a spot in the semifinals in match play for the championship.
No. 2 seed UL Monroe defeated the No. 3 Herd 3-1-1 in one semifinal match Thursday morning.
“Today was a really good day,” Marshall coach Matt Grobe said. “The guys played really well, but we ran into a hot team. ULM was impressive today and threw a lot of birdies at us. The guys responded well and fought hard but just couldn’t make up enough ground. Match Play was a great experience for our guys and hopefully we learned a little bit about the format for the future.”
Arkansas State, which had prevailed in 54 holes of stroke play to secure that title and top seed for match play, beat No. 4 Texas State, 4-1, in the other semifinal.
Arkansas State and UL Monroe needed extra holes to decide the title and secure the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. Thomas Schmidt defeated UL Monroe’s Melan Dhaubhadel on the 20th hole to secure a 3-2 triumph for the Red Wolves. They will learn their destination on May 1 during the NCAA Selection show on Golf Channel at 2 p.m.
Against UL Monroe, Clayton Thomas secured the only point for the Herd with a 3 & 2 victory over Louis Anceaux at the No. 2 spot. At No. 5, Marshall’s Tyler Jones and Dhaubhadel were square after 14 holes, but the Warhawks notched the win when Theis Poulsen beat Ryan Bilby, 3 & 2.
Mikkel Schmidt beat the Herd’s Cameron Jarvis, 7 & 6, and Ylan Guerin Pozzalo topped Joseph Kalaskey, 5 & 4.
In stroke play, Bilby finished third to secure a spot on the SBC All-Tournament Team. Jones posted a tie for seventh.
Arkansas State shot 859 to win the team stroke title. UL Monroe took second at 870 and the Herd and Texas State tied for third at 877.
Marshall won the tiebreaker over Texas State for No. 3 by virtue of a combined non-counting score of 20-over 236.
South Alabama’s Hugo Thyr and Schmidt tied at 212 after 54 holes and went to a playoff for the individual crown. The two players matched birdies and pars on the first two holes. Back at the par-5 18th for the third hole, Thyr reached the green in two and two-putted for birdie after Schmidt’s second shot found the water. This is Thyr’s second straight title.
In the final team standings, Coastal Carolina was fifth followed by James Madison, Georgia Southern, Louisiana, Troy, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Appalachian State and Old Dominion (tie 12th) and Georgia State.
Six NCAA regionals are scheduled May 13-15. The national championship is scheduled May 24-29 at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif.
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SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Less than an hour after scoring 20 runs in their Mountain State Athletic Conference tournament semifinal victory over Spring Valley, Hurricane continued to put big numbers on the scoreboard in the league championship game. The Redskins defeated Cabell Midland, 9-5 to win the MSAC title.
Hurricane scored four runs in the first inning and three more in the third to build a 7-3 lead. Ten of their 14 hits came in the first three innings.
“We were working her deep in the counts. We were getting a lot of foul balls and being very patient, waiting on their pitch and getting something to drive,” said Hurricane head coach Meghan Stevens.
On Wednesday, the Knights erased a 6-2 deficit in the seventh inning to defeat the Redskins, 7-6 in their final regular season conference game.
“I think yesterday whenever they came back in the last inning and beat us, it really made us want to work harder and be able to have more good at bats,” said Hurricane junior Alexandra Anderson.
“I think yesterday we realized that we could beat them,” Stevens said. “We said we wanted to learn from it, come out today and not let it happen. Their bats were on fire and they had good energy. There was good production from the whole team.”
Both teams cruised to victories in their semifinal contests. No. 1 seed Cabell Midland defeated St. Albans, 12-4 in 5 innings while the No. 3 seed Hurricane knocked off Spring Valley 20-4 in 4 innings.
Sophomore Kate Justice went the distance in the circle for the Redskins after picking up the win against the Timberwolves.
“That’s what we kept asking her, if she felt good,” Stevens said. “She really wanted it. She kept saying that she felt fine so she went back out there. And she was super-efficient.”
Hurricane and Cabell Midland shared the MSAC title two years ago. Sectional play for both teams begins next week.
“This one is great and we want to celebrate it,” Stevens said. “But we want the ones next week even more. So I think it is good for us. But get a little taste of it and stay hungry.”
“My freshman year, we were co-champs with Cabell Midland,” Anderson said. “It has been head-to-head since then. So it feels good to finally win the championship.”
Kenzie Kessel and Elise Pye each had three hits for Hurricane. Anderson, Jaden Jones and Kyndall Harper each had two hits for HHS (16-7). Quinn Ballengee, Becca Conrad and Baylee Smith each had multi-hit games for CMHS (22-4). Olivia Bell had a two-run home run in the seventh for the Knights.
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WESTON, W.Va. — Lewis County’s Joey Aman was in control from the first pitch Thursday against East Fairmont, but it didn’t stop the Bees from battling with the Minutemen.
Yet with the game tied at 3 in the home half of the sixth inning, the Minutemen got a one-out double to left from Luke Clem, and it allowed Drew Cayton to score what proved to be the winning run in a 4-3 victory over the Bees.
“Quality at bats is always our go-to,” Minutemen head coach Tyler Wood said. “We don’t keep track of the hits as much as getting on base and contact percentage. Coming up with it during key times is part of our game.”
Cayton led off the sixth with a single to center and advanced to second on Ryder Aman’s sacrifice bunt. Clem then delivered the clutch knock, connecting off East Fairmont (13-6) starting pitcher Tristan Boone to put the Minutemen back on top.
Later in the sixth, Class AA No. 3 Lewis County (15-3) had an opportunity to increase its advantage, but Clem was thrown out at the plate while trying to score from second base on Joey Aman’s single to left.
“I told them, ‘thank you for having my back,’ because that was one of the worst coaching decisions I’ve ever made with my best hitter at the plate,” Wood said. “They have my back, they have each other’s backs and to know that you have each other’s backs is what carries us in close games like this.”
The Bees had one more chance to prolong the game when they came to bat in the top of the seventh, but Joey Aman retired the side in order. Aman, who threw 109 pitches over seven frames, recorded the final two outs with his eighth and ninth strikeouts against the No. 1 and 2 hitters in East Fairmont’s lineup.
“Sometimes you just tip your cap. He made some good pitches and we weren’t squaring as many balls up as what we normally do,” East Fairmont head coach Joe Price said. “We had nine quality at bats, which that’s a season low this year. We needed to get some more guys on base, get them around and get them in, and it just didn’t happen.”
Lewis capitalized on East Fairmont’s only error of the game in the second inning to produce the first run. What could’ve produced the final out instead extended the frame, and two batters later, No. 9 hitter Leo Jones singled to center, allowing Ryder Aman to score the game’s first run.
The Minutemen went in front 3-0 in the third courtesy of Trenton Hunt’s two-run home run to the deepest part of the park in center field. It allowed Joey Aman to score after he’d led off that inning with a base-on-balls.
“I wasn’t quite sure it was gone, but he has the pop to take it opposite field, and we’ve already seen it once before this year,” Wood said. “I like the gap to gap hitters. If you’re early, you can pull it down the line, and if you’re late, you can pull it down this line. If you have gap to gap power, you’re going to do pretty well at the plate.”
But momentum for the Minutemen was short-lived and the Bees pulled even in the fourth despite managing only one hit. Brody Bledsoe drew a leadoff walk, and consecutive errors helped EFHS generate its first run, which Bledsoe scored. After Remington Pourbaix was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Casey Linn laid down a bunt that looked as though it would yield the second out of the inning on a force play at the plate, but catcher Garrett Moats was unable to hang on to a throw from Hunt at third base, and Ian Graffius scored to make it 3-2.
Boone helped his cause with a two-out single to score Tanner Mayfield that tied it at 3, but the Bees squandered a chance for their lead when Pourbaix was thrown out at the plate trying to advance from third on a pitch that had briefly gotten away from Moats.
Boone retired six of the seven batters he faced over the fourth and fifth innings, and the Bees had another chance to go in front in the sixth. After the inning began with two outs, Pourbaix was hit by a pitch for the second time and Case Linn drew a walk. But Joey Aman never wavered and got River McClain to hit a fly ball to center for the final out of the inning.
When Aman came back out to toe the rubber in the seventh, his team had gone back in front.
Joey Aman walked three over his stellar seven-inning effort.
“He was painting the bottom left-hand corner of the zone,” Wood said. “That’s hard to hit. You then only have one side of the field. You can’t ask for much more from him.”
Clem and Joey Aman keyed Lewis’ eight-hit attack with two apiece.
In addition to finishing with the Bees’ lone hit, Boone struck out five and walked three over a quality six-inning start.
“He was around the zone all day long,” Price said, “and did a very good job.”
It marked the second time this season the Minutemen knocked off the Bees in competitive fashion after they secured a 5-3 victory in an earlier meeting.
“Tyler coaches a good team and we’ve had two dogfights with them,” Price said. “We’ve come up on the short end both times, but we know we’ve been in the games, and that’s a good test for our guys, and it’s a good test for their guys. We’re really happy with where we’re at. We aren’t satisfied with this result, but we’ll move forward and tomorrow’s a new day.”
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WHEELING, W.Va. — The Wheeling-based Mt. Zion Cemetery Corporation received a $2 million check from Gov. Jim Justice Thursday to help with repairs following a mudslide that damaged as many as 150 headstones after heavy rains earlier this month.
Del. Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, was one of the first lawmakers involved the day following the incident, also the same day U.S. Senator Joe Manchin was making a scheduled visit. Fluharty started the ball rolling with that conversation and another at the state level.
“We knew from the very beginning that this was going to be more than a few volunteers with shovels heading up the hill,” Fluharty said. “This is going to take a lot of heavy lifting; it’s going to be a major project.”
The cemetery, which has the graves of hundreds of veterans including those from the Civil War, has been maintained since 2015 by the Mt. Zion Cemetery Corporation, a non-profit led by President Charles Yocke and Secretary/Treasurer Paula Stein. Those two have a cadre of different volunteers and businesses that are prepared to help make repairs.
Yocke said a Morgantown-based engineering firm is working with them to fix an unstable area above the slide site. Before any major repair work can be done, the surrounding area has to be stabilized for the safety of the workers.
“We’re trying to get a contractor up there to fix the slip because it is still ready to come down,” Yocke said. “It’s like a “V” up there all bottled up.”
The next step will be to identify what headstones have been moved. The conditions have not permitted an investigation into what headstones have been damaged, how many are damaged, and how extensive repairs will be.
“We’ll go along each side of the pile to find the markers and zero in to try to find out what moved,” Yocke said.
A company that specializes in this type of work has given a price range of $1 million to $1.5 million to repair the headstones and reset them on new footers. The process involves finding the pieces, taking them to another location to be reassembled, and returning to the cemetery to be reset.
“They would dig the footers and remount them, and that whole process will take about a year,” Yocke said.
Yocked said the help of Fluharty and State Senator Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, have been very helpful through the process. Fluharty said that in this case, the power of the government was blind to party affiliation and focused on fixing a serious community problem.
“We all came together- a good example of bipartisanship, some good government, some good community service all coming together to see what we can figure out and do this piece by piece,” Fluharty said.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Hundreds of employees at CAMC are celebrating anniversaries this week including a few with over 50 years of service.
More than 1,200 employees and volunteers are celebrating anniversaries in 2024. CAMC recognizes employees celebrating milestone anniversaries for their years of service starting at five years.
A recognition dinner was held at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center Thursday evening. More than 800 people were expected to attend the dinner.
CAMC President and CEO Dave Ramsey said the milestones that people have been able to reach as a member of CAMC is truly remarkable .
“It’s just a special time where we get to honor the folks that dedicated most of their working life to taking care of all of us,” said Ramsey.
Jeff Greathouse, CRNA, has accomplished an impressive feat of 55 years of service at CAMC. He started in October 1969 as a part-time attendant while he was still in high school.
“I think it’s pretty special,” Greathouse said about his 55 years. “My grandfather worked for a company for 50 years so I passed him up but I’m sure he’d be proud of me.”
The Greathouse family is full of people working in the medical field. He met his wife, a Kentucky native, in the E.R. His daughter is a CRN and his son is an OR nurse. Greathouse aid there’s no other place he’d rather be.
“I grew up here,” he said. “This is home. Charleston, West Virginia is home.”
Seven more employees are celebrating 50 years including Sharon Elmore who currently works as a surgical scheduler. Her love for her job has also grown strong as the CAMC community has also grown across West Virginia.
“We all work together towards the same goal, taking care of patients,” said Elmore.
Elmore started out in patient care. She said she loves helping people work through their pathway. She too started at CAMC while still in high school, just like Greathouse.
“It’s a little surreal because it seems like just yesterday I was starting while in high school,” she said.
CAMC has had a lot to celebrate since the last dinner recognition this time a year ago. Since then, CAMC joined with Mon Health to create Vandalia Health and expand their service across the state. The number of hospitals has also jumped in recent years.
“We went from four hospitals in Charleston and Morgantown and now we have 14 hospitals that we own in our system and three others that we manage,” said Ramsey.
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SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Highlights from Cabell Midland’s 12-4 (5-inning) win over St. Albans in the MSAC semifinals. Hurricane defeated Spring Valley, 20-2 in 4 innings in the opposite semifinal.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Officials are saying goodbye to a piece of the City of Charleston’s past and setting their sights on the future as they begin to journey further into the $40 billion dollar industry that is sports tourism.
Demolition on the former Macy’s store at the Charleston Town Center Mall has officially begun as to make way for the future Capital Sports Center.
Those behind the effort, city officials and the Kanawha County Commission met for a press conference Thursday afternoon to discuss the next steps and the soon-to-be construction process regarding the projected $80 million endeavor.
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin was also on hand at the event. He provided $2 million in Congressionally Directed Spending to help initiate a foundation in the dollars going towards the project.
Manchin said he didn’t think twice about investing in something that will generate an even bigger return on investment, adding that it will be even bigger than what the mall brought in during its heyday after opening in 1983.
“Those who remember when the mall first opened, it was the biggest thing that hit West Virginia, thinking that it was right downtown in Charleston, and the excitement that went on and the amount of revenue it generated, and then you see, it’s gone a life cycle,” said Manchin. “What’s going to happen, fairly soon, is going to be bigger than that.”
The city and the commission has also put in $5 million each for the project and they are currently requesting additional federal direct funding.
Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin said state leaders are another potential funding source, as well, because they know the benefits such a major sports facility can bring in.
“The state is doing it better than anybody right now right, they are putting more money into travel and tourism than they ever have before because they see the return on investment, and so, it’s going to be lots of different pots,” said Goodwin.
Commissioner Ben Salango said it’s looking to cost about $60 million for phase 1 of the project alone, which covers a significant portion of demolition and preliminary construction in building the around 196 thousand square foot sports center.
Handling the demolition of the Macy’s building, a big portion of where the new facility will go, is Rodney Loftis & Sons. It’s expected to be an ongoing process of about 6 to 8 weeks in getting the building completely torn down.
Following the demolition process will begin the final steps of the architectural and design planning phase being handled by ZMM Architects.
Preliminary designs include around six basketball courts, twelve volleyball, and around eight pickleball courts. In addition, the indoor complex is expected to house wrestling mats, a fitness center, a turf soccer field, a rock-climbing wall, a main gymnasium, and an aquatic center complete with an Olympic-sized pool.
Three floors of the Town Center’s Parking Garage B is also expected to be torn down to fit the aquatic center into the facility.
However, Salango said property acquisition has been creating a hold-up for phase 2 of the project and it continues to be an issue they are still working on.
He said what they didn’t want to do, though, was to delay all of the benefits coming out of phase 1 while they wait to acquire the property.
“There’s going to be millions and millions of dollars in economic impact, why delay that for years while we negotiate property acquisition,” said Salango.
The Capital Sports Center Committee is also working with Sports Facilities Inc., a nationwide company who helps design major sports complexes like the one being built in Charleston. Goodwin said they know how to make the endeavor be sustainable.
She said, however, that there is already no concern that the sports center will be a success in the city.
“It will be filled and booked before we really even start building this, because there are already companies and organizations saying ‘when is it going to be finalized because we want to host our tournaments there,” said Goodwin.
Manchin said he is committed to helping see the project through until the very end.
He said there are different areas they can tap into to acquire more funding for the project.
“As the transition is going on, we have different opportunities that we’re able to pull from, so we have to search and look for any opportunity that we have, and there’s quite a few,” said Manchin.
Goodwin said with hundreds of teams and thousands of players from across the country making their way to other state’s sports complexes on a regular basis, sports tourism is the future, and the new facility will give the city and state a major piece of that $40 million industry.
She said there is something known as an anchor facility standard, which means that the facility has the capability of hosting some of the biggest tournaments in the country, and that’s something they are striving for with this sports complex. This means, added Goodwin, that looking into anything from how many basketball courts there are, down to where the locker rooms get placed is an important part of the process in getting there.
“We will never be able to compete on a national level unless and until we have anchor-level facilities, that means eight basketball courts, that means 16 volleyball courts, and we are a stone’s throw away from the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center where we can book more of those events,” she said.
Goodwin said they plan to unveil different but similar design plans for the complex in the next coming weeks as those plans get finalized.
Salango said the sport center’s economic impact is expected to reach the tens of millions.
“All of these big dollar travel sports will be coming to town, and you combine that asset with the assets they already have at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center, you can host some of the biggest basketball and some of the biggest volleyball tournaments in the country,” said Salango.
The entire Capital Sports Center project is expected to take around two to three years to complete.
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West Virginia is among the first three states to be approved to start accessing millions of federal dollars for broadband expansion.
The upshot is West Virginia can soon begin drawing down $1.2 billion to deploy high-speed internet networks for a region where connectivity has been an uphill battle.
“This means West Virginia is another step closer to using our $1.2 billion towards efforts to better-connect homes, business, and classrooms across the state,” said Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.
Senator Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said the announcement represents progress in ensuring dependable broadband is delivered to every West Virginia business and family.
“Today’s announcement is another step in the right direction of our goal to connect every West Virginian to reliable high-speed internet by the end of the decade,” Manchin said.
The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration has approved Kansas, Nevada and West Virginia’s initial proposals for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, a cornerstone of the Biden-Harris Administration’s “Internet for All” initiative.
The designation will enable them to request access to funding and begin implementation of the BEAD program.
Of the three initial states, West Virginia will draw down the most:
- Kansas: $451.7 million
- Nevada: $416.6 million
- West Virginia: $1.2 billion
“I commend the teams in Kansas, Nevada and West Virginia for their tireless work to ensure everyone in their state has access to reliable high-speed Internet service,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
The BEAD program is a $42.45 billion state grant program authorized by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The states were allocated funding to deploy or upgrade high-speed internet networks to ensure that everyone has access to reliable, affordable, high-speed Internet service.
Once deployment goals are met, any remaining funding can be used on high-speed Internet adoption, training, and workforce development efforts, among other eligible uses.
BEAD-eligible entities — states, territories, and the District of Columbia — were required to submit initial proposals detailing how they plan to spend their BEAD allocation to deliver high-speed internet access to all unserved and underserved locations within their borders.
One year from approval of the initial proposal, states must submit a final proposal detailing, among other things, the outcome of the selection process for “subgrantees” that will carry out the broadband expansion work and how the state will ensure service to all unserved and underserved locations.
“Today’s announcements mark another milestone in the effort to close the digital divide across America,” said Alan Davidson, administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
“Kansas, Nevada and West Virginia have created strong plans — reflecting their unique needs — to deploy reliable, affordable high-speed Internet service across their states.”
In a conference call with reporters, Evan Feinman, director of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program for NTIA, described the hard work, motivation and organization of West Virginia officials. He praised Gov. Jim Justice, Economic Development Secretary Mitch Carmichael and Kelly Workman, director of the state Office of Broadband.
“It is the case that it’s one of the finest broadband offices in the country, and they just consistently do really, really excellent work,” Feinman said.
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A Morgantown man is charged with first-degree murder in a shooting death that took place last Friday.
The Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department announced Thursday it had arrested Rick Cordes, 49, for killing Jennifer Hribar, 39, also of Morgantown, at a residence on Fallen Water Lane in the Cheat Lake area.
Detectives said Hribar died of an apparent gunshot wound to the back of the head.
The investigation determined that Cordes and Hribar went to two establishments in the Cheat Lake area before the shooting. Surveillance footage at each location shows the two were involved in a verbal disagreement that got the attention of the staff at both locations. Those in charge at the establishments told detectives they had staff members monitor Cordes because they feared the verbal altercation could become physical.
Detectives said they recovered a pistol they believed to have been used in the shooting at the residence where Hribar was discovered. Cordes told detectives he had contact with the grip of the pistol, and the trigger could have been pulled by both he and Hribar.
Detectives noted that during initial conversations with MECCA 911 dispatchers, first responders, and detectives, the description of events Cordes provided changed several times.
Cordes is being held in the North Central Regional Jail without bail.
Detectives said the investigation is ongoing and are asking anyone with additional information to contact the Monongalia Sheriff’s Department at 304-291-7260.
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