The Lord Botetourt and James River cross country teams competed in the Alleghany Invitational at the Jackson River Sports Complex in Covington Saturday. The meet was hosted by Alleghany High School.
Parry McCluer won the boys meet with Hidden Valley taking second. Lord Botetourt was eighth and James River finished 17th among 27 teams.
“Alleghany was flat and fast, just as they label it,” said LB coach Elizabeth Edmonds. “We had multiple runners run their personal best times. The runners ran well as a team, and we even broke records.”
LB’s Eric Duncan led the meet with a new course record and meet record of 15:19. He was followed by Ethan Thorne, coming in third place with a time of 15:38. Preston Vaughn, Nathan Moser, and Archer Lee rounded out Botetourt’s top five runners.
Aiden Bartalis and Braden Jones were the top finishers on the James River boys team. All the boys on the team had personal record times.
Spotswood won the girls team title with Christiansburg taking second. Lord Botetourt was 18th and River was 21st.
The River girls were led by Anne Thorne with a time of 18:45, coming in fourth place. She was followed by Maddy Gantzhorn, Ember Wiley, Madeleine Moore and Riley Howell.
“Our athletes ran hard and ran fast,” said Edmonds.
River’s girls team also ran well, with all running personal best times. Sarah Grace Laughridge was the top finisher for the River girls.
The Lord Botetourt team will be traveling to Virginia Tech this coming weekend for the East Coast Elite race. River’s next meet will be the East Mont Invitational at Camp Alta Mons in Montgomery County on Wednesday, October 2.
