The Lord Botetourt and James River cross country teams will run in the Alleghany Invitational in Covington this Saturday. The Cavaliers ran in a race at Longwood University last Saturday while the Knights had the weekend off.
Prince Edward High School partnered with Longwood University to host the Eagle Invitational cross country meet last Saturday. The races took place at Longwood’s home cross country course, which regularly hosts collegiate meets including the Big South Conference Championships.
In the men’s race Preston Vaughn broke the course record to lead the Cavalier men to victory. Preston was content to sit-back through the first mile before going solo off the front for the second half of the race. He was never caught, and gets to take home not only the victory, but the course record as well.
Archer Lee clocked a personal best to take third, followed by John Moughrabi, Mason Tuck, Caleb Thorne and Thomas Mattarocchia.
“The Lord Botetourt men ran a very intelligent team race,” said coach Noel Preece. “A conservative first mile allowed them to move up when it counted, taking valuable points as the humidity caught up with other runners. From an individual perspective it was fantastic to see Preston Vaughn and Archer Lee take home first and third, but for the team it was Mason Tuck and Caleb Thorne who really sealed it for us.”
In the women’s race, Julia Thorne kept pressure on the leaders from the gun, coming home second on the day with a time faster than the previous course record. Addison Purser finished next for LB and fourth on the course ahead of a strong mid-pack showing from the underclassmen ladies.
“Today was a mixed bag for the ladies,” said Preece. “Most of our athletes ran incredibly well, but our team score was handicapped by three big names who were either missing or scored outside of our varsity squad. All of our ladies are leaving the meet healthy, and it is incredibly encouraging to have the depth of talent to still be fighting towards the front even on a day where multiple things go sideways. We are excited to come back next week at full-force and really see where we stand as a team.”
