The Botetourt Sports Complex at Greenfield will be the site of a four-school cross country meet today, beginning at 5 p.m. The meet was originally scheduled for Thursday, but moved up a day due to a forecast of heavy rain for Thursday.
Blue Ridge District schools William Byrd, Hidden Valley and Northside will join the Lord Botetourt at Greenfield. James River was originally scheduled to compete, but the VHSL has ruled that only four schools can compete in a meet this season unless they’re all in the same district, and James River is in the Three Rivers District so the Knights were the odd school out. River will run at Hidden Valley this Saturday.
Lord Botetourt competed in a five-school meet last week with all BRD teams and swept both the boys’ and girls’ races at Waid Park in Rocky Mount. LB, Northside, William Byrd, William Fleming and host Franklin County competed.
In the girls’ meet the Cavaliers scored 45 points to 56 for second place Franklin County. Franklin’s Addie Shorter won the 5,000-meter race in a time of 20:12, but LB had the next two as junior Sydney Vokus was second at 21:23 and Ella Johnston, a freshman, was third at 22:13. Also scoring for LB were Lauren Duff in ninth place, Brielle Jackson in 15th and Sofia Hernandez in 16th. A total of 45 girls finished the race.
The Botetourt boys had a big day with 26 points to finish first, followed by Franklin with 26. Again, Franklin had the overall winner with Nathan Atchue, who finished the 5,000 meters in 17:06. Botetourt then had the next three as Evan Gates took second at 17:51, Bryson Cook was third at 18:05 and Evan Poff finished fourth in 18:20. Also scoring for LB among 42 runners were Carter Hudson in seventh place and Rye Jackson, a freshman, in 10th.
The Cavaliers were scheduled to run at Staunton River on Monday of this week but that meet was postponed until March 25 due to inclement weather.
James River will run at Hidden Valley High School this Saturday, beginning at 9 a.m. The Knights opened last week with a meet at Alleghany that featured River, the host Mountaineers and two runners from Narrows.
Isaac Bell led the River boys with a time of 19:18, good for fifth place. Nathan Etzler had a time of 20:36.
River had just three girls in the race, Riley Potter, Haley Meadows and Sloan Stephenson. It was the first varsity race for all three and Potter had the best time at 26:55.
