Photos by Brian Hoffman
The Lord Botetourt and James River cross country teams ran in the East Coast Elite Meet at Green Hill Park in Roanoke County last Saturday and some fast times resulted, including an epic performance by LB’s Eric Duncan. Eric won the boys race with a time of 14:45.20 to record what is thought to be the fastest known time in Virginia High School League Class 3 history.
“Eric’s time was the eighth fastest 5K in state history and No. 1 this year,” said LB coach Noel Preece. “From what we have found so far, the VHSL does not appear to maintain time records officially. Based on all publicly available databases that I can find, Eric’s performance is the fastest cross country 5K performance in Class 3 history.”
Duncan finished first among 222 runners in the boys race. Three other Cavaliers, Preston Vaughn, Archer Lee and John Moughrabi, ran personal bests and Ethan Thorne ran within two seconds of his personal best despite just coming off a serious illness.
“With the performances from our top five today (Saturday), our men’s team is looking strong for the Region 3D meet next month,” said Preece. “Duncan now enjoys more than a 30-second buffer at the top of the Virginia Class 3 standings, but we expect that Thorne will close this gap significantly once he recovers fully.”
Braden Jones led the James River boys with a personal record of 17:14. Nolan Linthicum had a PR 19:28, Charlie Stull had a PR 19:41 and Barrett Pace missed a PR by 8 seconds. Joel Laughridge had a PR 20:21 and Brody Stewart just missed having a PR.
“We were missing our No. 2 on the team, Mark Voight, but the boys ran a fast race and are really pushing towards our post season,” said coach Daphne Davidson.
In the girls race, River freshman Maddie Davidson had a PR 20:47 and four others posted their best times of the season, Holly Weddle, Daniella Murray, Alex Bona and Jacey Walker.
For the LB women, Maddie Moore ran her first ever sub-25-minute performance and Anne Thorne ran her first meet in the better part of a year as she returns from injury.
“The state course this year is incredibly fast, and we are glad that East Coast Elite decided to host this preview meet so that our athletes were able to familiarize themselves with the course,” said Preece.
James River also ran in the Eastern Montgomery Invitational in Shawsville last week. The East Mont boys and Patrick Henry girls won team titles with River’s boys finishing sixth and the girls seventh.
“Alta Mons was super fun race where the kids were focusing on mile times,” said Davidson. “That course was a fun, pretty race and is always great to have pizza waiting!”
River runners won three medals as Jones was 13th and Voight was 15th in the boys race and Maddie Davidson was 10th in the girls race.
The Knights will run in Pulaski Saturday to get ready for the Three Rivers District meet at Greenfield in Botetourt County on Oct. 21. The Cavaliers are off until Oct. 18 at Pole Green Park.
