William Fleming was the site of the annual Cosmopolitan Club Track meet last week and James River and Lord Botetourt teams were in the field. Blacksburg swept the boys’ and girls’ Senior Divisions and girls’ Junior Division while William Byrd won the boys’ Junior Division.
The River girls finished eighth in the Senior Division and Emma Francis was named the meet’s Field Athlete of the Meet, along with winning a Cosmopolitan Club scholarship. Emma won both the shot and discus.
The River girls took fifth in the Junior Division and Nevaeh VanBuren was the Most Valuable Field Performer, winning the high and triple jumps and taking second in the long jump and discus. She also ran anchor leg on the fifth place 4×100 team with Chase Clemons, Kaia Binns and Kelsey Firebaugh. Binns was sixth in the 100 and 200.
The Knights were 13th in the Senior Boys Division. George Toliver led the Knights with a third place in the shot put with a state qualifying heave. Andrew Fowler was fifth in the discus.
Others who placed included Michael Jorgensen with a fifth in the 3,200, Conner Church with a sixth in the 200 and Brian Moran with a fifth in the long jump and a sixth in the triple jump.
The Knights were 12th in the Junior Division, and Gavin Binns scored all the points. He won the 100 and was fifth in the 200.
Photos by Brian Hoffman
Lord Botetourt split up their team with some athletes competing in the Cosmo while others were in Charlottesville for the Dogwood Classic at the University of Virginia.
At Fleming, Elijah Rose placed third in the 110 hurdles, fifth in the 300 hurdles, third in the high jump and fourth in the triple jump while competing in the Senior Division. Jonah Clark was sixth in the 300 hurdles.
Also in the Senior Boys’ Division, Seth Huard was third in the discus.
“It was great getting Seth back,” said LB coach Paul Craft. “He’s been out almost a month with a wrist injury. He still isn’t back to throwing shot yet but he’s throwing the disc well. I look for him to qualify for the state in the next few weeks in disc. He’s got a great work ethic and spends a lot of time studying and practicing technique on his own at home on top of what we do at practice.”
In the Junior Division, Jillian Harris was fourth in the 110 hurdles while Meredith Griffin and Alina Toliver went fourth and fifth in the Junior Division girls’ discus. Jaidan Dann placed fifth in the girls’ Junior shot and Kesean Anderson placed fifth in Junior boys’ shot.
At UVA senior distance runner Carter Hudson qualified for state in the 3200-meter run. He covered two miles in nine minutes and 55 seconds.
“Carter is a team leader for us and basically functions as a coach as well to our younger distance kids,” said Craft. “He’s incredibly driven and self-motivated. He signed with Lynchburg University and will be running cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track for them.”
Kendal Howard finished fifth in the discus and seventh in shot in a strong Dogwood field. DJ Toliver qualified for the state meet in shot.
The Cavaliers are scheduled to run at Staunton River today. James River is at Floyd today and at Christiansburg for an invitational Saturday.
