The 2024 high school track season is now underway and it’s an exciting time at Lord Botetourt High School. The Cavaliers have a new head coach for the boys team and a brand new track that is scheduled to be used for a meet for the first time today. LB will host county rival James River and Parry McCluer on the new track today, Wednesday, at 4 p.m.
“It’s the first meet we’ve hosted in a few years,” said new boys’ coach Jamie Harless. “I invite the community to come out and see our team and the new track. We’re all excited about the new track, and we’ve already had 33 practices since February 19.”
“The girls love the new track and are excited about the chance to try pole vault,” said LB girls’ coach Michelle Gantzhorn.
Gantzhorn returns as girls’ coach at LB but Harless is new to the program. Jamie is well known in the community as the Cavalier football coach, having lifted the program to the most success in school history. He’s been a track coach at both Franklin County and Cave Spring High Schools and he’s excited to take on a new challenge at LB.
“I observed the track team as a parent last year and when the position came open I felt like there was a lot I could add to the program,” he said. “I think the team we have as of today has a chance to compete at the state level if we continue to develop.”
Photos by Brian Hoffman
This year’s track program is a little different than in the past, when the boys and girls teams practiced together. This year they have separate, but equal, practice times on the track and each coach is responsible for his or her own assistants. After concerns were raised on social media about equity for the girls the central office made a decision to keep the programs separate with equal access to the new track.
Harless wasted no time building his staff. One of the first people he reached out to was Salem’s Tra Wilson, who has a son, Jeremiah, on the University of Virginia track team and a younger son, DaRon, who was also a track standout for the Spartans. Both boys won state Class 4 championships at Salem and both participated on the Roanoke Tigers team, a travel team that Tra coached with kids from all over the Roanoke Valley.
“We played in the state (football) all-star game together in Hampton in 1993,” said Harless of Wilson, who was a standout quarterback at Salem High in his high school days. “I sacked the quarterback late in the second quarter, and a couple plays later Tra threw a touchdown pass to (future NFL star) Tiki Barber.”
Harless also enlisted Lusheeda Kenner to help with the jumps and he’s hoping to add Jeff Johnson, a former head football coach at Patrick Henry High, to coach pole vaulters with pending approval from the School Board.
The Lord Botetourt and James River teams opened the season last Saturday at the “Terrier Team Challenge” at William Byrd High School in Vinton. Perennial track power Blacksburg swept the team titles but the LB boys took second among 20 teams entered in the first big meet of the season.
“If we could have pulled out one other thing we could have won,” said Harless.
Botetourt’s Caleb Miller set a new school record in the 110 hurdles at 15:43 and Triston Graves also ran a state qualifying time as they finished second and third in the event. Graves and Miller took third and fourth in the 300 hurdles.
T.J. McGinnis was second in the 100 with a state qualifying time and Kendal Howard won the discus and took second in the shot put.
For the girls, Jillian Harris took fifth in the 100 hurdles and seventh in the long jump. Botetourt’s distance medley relay team was third.
“We were excited to get the season started at Byrd,” said Gantzhorn. “Their facilities are top notch, not to mention their meets are always run so smoothly. Our girls did great for their first meet despite the freezing temperatures and crazy winds. I am excited to see where the season goes.”
The James River girls took fourth overall. Navaeh VanBuren had a good day to open the season as she won the triple jump, took second in the discus with a state-qualifying toss and was fourth in the long jump. Emma Bobbitt was second in the shot put with a state-qualifying heave and fourth in the discus.
In the running events, Kaia Binns was fourth in the 100 with a state-qualifying time and Kelsey Firebaugh was sixth. They were seventh and ninth in the 200 and both ran on the fifth place 4×100 relay team with VanBuren and Alise Orent.
River’s next meet is today when the Knights help inaugurate the new track at LB.
