The Lord Botetourt boys had four of the first six runners, including individual champion Eric Duncan, to win the Blue Ridge District cross country championship last week. The meet was held at Waid Park in Franklin County.
Duncan won the boys’ race with a Waid Park course record time of 15:58. That was three seconds faster than teammate Ethan Thorne, who also beat the previous course record with his time of 16:01.
Franklin County had the next two runners before Botetourt’s Preston Vaughn was fifth in 17:11.3, followed by John Moughrbi in sixth with a personal record time of 17:33.2. The fifth scorer for LB was Archer Lee who also ran a personal best with a time of 17:44.4 for 10th place. All five were awarded all-district honors.
“John Moughrabi and Archer Lee were the heroes of the day, both posting personal bests that brought them into the top 10 and which move the LB men up to third in the 3D region rankings and sixth in the Class 3 state rankings,” said LB coach Noel Preece.
The Cavaliers finished with 24 points to 35 for second place Franklin County. William Byrd was third with 73, followed by William Fleming at 101 and Staunton River with 151. Duncan was named the BRD men’s Runner of the Year.
In the girls’ meet just three schools had the required five runners and Franklin County finished first followed by William Byrd and William Fleming. Caitlyn Roach of Franklin County won the race in 19:51 while LB’s Ember Wiley was 20th in 26:17.
“We were down a few athletes due to illness in the team,” said Preece.
The Region 3D race is scheduled for today at the Smith River Complex course in Axton, Va. The top three teams advance to the state meet along with the top five individuals not from those teams.
“LB is ranked third but teams one through four are all ranked within very few points of each other,” said Preece.
The Class 3 state meet is Nov. 8 at Green Hill Park in west Roanoke County.
