The Class 3 state cross country meet is at Green Hill Park in west Roanoke County this Saturday and two Lord Botetourt girls will be running. Sisters Amelia and Erna Dietrich both qualified for the state with their times in last week’s Region 3D meet at Sugar Hollow Park in Bristol.
Abingdon won the girls region championship with 31 points, and also qualifying for the state meet were runner-up Christiansburg, with 51, and third place Cave Spring with 72. William Byrd was next with 109 points and Lord Botetourt finished fifth with 140.
The winning time in the three-mile race was 18:43 by Amanda Ferrante of Abingdon, as the Falcons had the first three runners across the line. Amelia Dietrich finished 18th in 21:55 and Erna was 20th in 21:57. Also scoring for the Cavaliers were Madeleine Gantzhorn in 30th, Ella Johnston in 32nd and Alexa Carillo in 44th place.
Abingdon also won the boys championship with 58 points, followed by Cave Spring with 70 and Bassett with 87. LB was seventh with an even 200.
Rives Boltwood of Abingdon won the race in 14:55 and the Falcons had the top two runners for the boys. Rye Jackson led the Cavaliers in 18:04 for 29th and Tristan Marshall was one spot behind in 18:05. Also scoring were Preston Vaughn in 40th, John Moughrabi in 50th and Joel Butler in 51st. No one from LB qualified for Saturday’s state boys meet.
“We ran really well at region,” said LB coach Elizabeth Wilson. “Many of our runners ran personal records. We peaked at just the right time.”
The Dietrich sisters will run in the very first race on Saturday at Green Hill with the start time scheduled for 10:30 a.m. The Class 3 boys will follow, then the Class 2 girls and boys run at 11:45 a.m. and the Class 1 girls and boys are scheduled for 1 p.m.
