Blacksburg sweeps Metro cross country

The host Bruins swept the annual Metro Cross Country meet on the Blacksburg High School course on Wednesday, October 18.

The Blacksburg girls won with 38 points while Rockbridge County took second with 82. The Lord Botetourt girls were seventh among the 12 teams and James River had girls competing but did not have a full team.

“The Metro ended up being perfect running weather, a great change from the brisk race last year,” said LB coach Elizabeth Wilson.

Amelia Dietrich led LB with a 27^th place finish in 22:53. The winning time was 18:22 by Chaney Kerrigan of North Cross.

Also scoring for LB were Erna Dietrich in 37^th, Addison Purser in 39^th, Madeleine Gantzhorn in 46^th, and Ella Johnston in 63^rd. There were 116 girls in the race.

For River, Georgia Miller was 76^th at 25:42 and Riley Persinger was 112^th.

In the boys race Blacksburg had 61 points to 83 for second place Cave Spring. Lord Botetourt was 11^th and River was 14^th among 18 teams.

The winning time was 16:36 by Eric Duncan of Roanoke Valley Christian. There were 159 finishers in the boys race and LB’s top runner was Rye Jackson, who was 49^th in 19:09. Also scoring were Preston Vaughn in 62^nd, John Moughrabi in 66^th, Joe Butler in 71^st and Blake Peery in 94^th place.

“Our teams have improved their packing so much this season,” said Wilson. “We are running close together and moving up.”

For River, Aiden Bartilis led the way with a 70^th place finish in 20:09. Also running for River were Tritian Capo-Lopez in 86^th, Braden Jones in 88^th, Silas Miller in 97^th, Mark Voight in 102^nd and Silas Whitson in 109^th.

“All the boys ran well and had good times on a very challenging course,” said River coach Butch Lewis.

The LB runners were scheduled to run in the Blue Ridge District race on the Greenfield course in Daleville Tuesday. The Region 3D meet is November 2 in Christiansburg.

The Three Rivers District does not have a district meet. River’s next race is a week from today, on November 1, in the Region 2C meet Green Hill Park in west Roanoke County. The girls run at 3 p.m. and the boys run at 3:45 p.m.