River’s Jones qualifies for state Class 2 meet

James River’s Braden Jones will run in the state Class 2 cross country meet at the Virginia Tech course in Blacksburg this Saturday. Tech will host the Class 1, 2 and 3 meets on the 5K course.

Braden finished 13^th among 69 runners with a time of 17:55 in the Region 2C race last week, held at Roanoke County’s Green Hill Park. Mason Erchull of Floyd County was the individual winner with a time of 15:54.

The top three teams advance to the state and Floyd County won the region championship followed by Glenvar and Patrick County. James River came in fourth as a team, just missing out on qualifying as a team. Also scoring for River were Aiden Bartulis in 16^th, Mark Voight in 18^th, Tristan Capo-Lopez in 28^th and Brody Stewart in 39^th.

Floyd also won the girls team title with Radford and Appomattox joining Floyd at this week’s state race. Reagan Lynch of Floyd was the individual winner in 19:08.

River did not have enough girls to score as a team but had three girls in the race. Jacey Walker finished 39^th, Holly Weddle was 43^rd and Janiya Falls was 46^th.