Lord Botetourt and James River cross country teams are competing in district meets this week to begin the post-season. The Knights were scheduled to run at Greenfield Recreation Park in Daleville Tuesday for the Three Rivers meet, while the Cavaliers will be in Rocky Mount today for the Blue Ridge District meet. The girls will run at 4:30 p.m. with the boys to follow at 5:15 p.m. in Franklin County.
Last Saturday Lord Botetourt competed in the VA XC Showcase 2025 meet at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville. The huge event included runners from over 250 schools.
“The VA Showcase is one of, if not THE most competitive high school meet on the East Coast at nearly twice the size of Knights Crossing,” said Botetourt coach Noel Preece. “Individuals and teams travel from New England to the Deep South to attend.”
In the Men’s showcase (championship) race Eric Duncan and Ethan Thorne represented Lord Botetourt High as individual qualifiers. Despite a fast start, the front pack remained 20 plus runners strong through the first 3K. Duncan, who until that point had been biding his time in this pack, went on a tear in kilometer 4, splitting 2:52 to shred the field, keeping only Connecticut number one Nathan Lee for company. Despite maintaining his attack to the finish, Duncan had to settle for second at the line with a time of 14:48.
Thorne kept close company behind, running a seven-second personal best 15:15.7 to place 23rd. The pair remains 1-2 in the VHSL Class 3 season rankings and Thorne moved up to 12th in Virginia behind Duncan’s overall lead.
In the Women’s elite race, Maddie Moore ran her second consecutive personal best, dipping under the 25-minute mark once again at 24:57.3. Ember Wiley fought to a season best time as well despite recently fighting injury, finishing in 26:19.4.
In the Men’s elite race, Preston Vaughn led LB, while Archer Lee followed closely behind to run a significant personal best.
“That moves the men’s team into closer contention for placement at the Oct. 29 region race,” said Preece. The Region 3D race will be held at the Smith River Complex in Axton.
Lucas Carswell clocked the biggest improvement of the day at Pole Green Park, nearly half a minute better than his previous best, and in another noteworthy performance Owen Mattarocchia came within 1/100th of a second of his personal best, despite recovering from illness earlier in the week.
James River did not have any VHSL races in the past week, but a few Knights ran in the First Bank 5K in Fincastle. Braden Jones and Mark Voight were one-two in the men’s division and Nolan Linthicum was fourth. In the women’s race, River’s Maddie Davidson finished first.
