Cook Outstanding MS Runner; Ogle sets meet record in 300 hurdles, Miller breaks JR records at Dogwood
William Fleming was the site of the 52nd annual Cosmopolitan Invitational Track Meet last weekend and it was a big time for some Botetourt County athletes. Read Mountain won the Middle School Division and James River’s girls were fifth among 21 schools, most of them much larger than James River High School.
Senior Division titles went to the William Fleming boys and Pulaski County girls while Junior titles, for ninth and 10th graders, went to the Northside boys and Christiansburg girls. Blacksburg won the girls middle school championship and Read Mountain won the boys title by a point and a half over James Madison, clinching the title on the final event of the middle school meet, the 4×400 relay.
It was the first middle school Cosmo title for Read Mountain and the first for a Botetourt County middle school since Botetourt Intermediate won the boys championship in 1994. Chuck Burton is the boys head coach and Paul Craft is his assistant.
It was a big day for Read Mountain’s Bryce Cook, who has rewritten the Read Mountain record book in running events. Cook was named the Outstanding Middle School Runner as he set school records in both the 400 and 800. He completed the season holding four schools records for the middle school track team.
Also, Hunter Rice broke the school record in the triple jump, Evan Overbay broke his own record in the long jump, and the 4x100m relay broke the school record for that event. The Read Mountain girls were ninth.
The James River girls were fifth in both the Senior and Junior Divisions. In the Senior Division, Lauren Ogle set a new meet record in the 300 hurdles with a time of 45.76. She was also second in the 100 and ran on the fourth place 4×100 team with Kerri Wiley, Emily Walker and Susan Schulz.
Walker took a fourth place in the 200 and River took two thirds in the throwing events. Brianna Zicafoose was third in the discus and Tara Krantz was third in the shot put.
In the Junior Division Erin Walker won the 400, Katelyn Wiley won the 300 hurdles and the foursome of Walker, Wiley, Tessa Jones and Grace Montgomery won the 4×400. Wiley also took third in the triple jump.
The boys Senior team was 14th and the Junior team finished ninth. Will Fowler was fifth in the 800 for the Senior team.
For the Junior team, Ian Hester took a second in the 300 hurdles. Logan Williamson was second in the shot and fourth in the discus and Levi Walker was fourth in the shot.
Sophomore Will Miller might have won a couple events at the Cosmo but opted to attend the Dogwood Invitational in Charlottesville, where he ran against nationally ranked competition. Will was 14th in the 1600 with a time of 4:20 and 15th in the 3200 at 9:30. Both were school records and personal bests by seven (1600) and 18 (3200) seconds, and both times would have won the Cosmo.
“His 1600 time was one second away from qualifying for the nationals,” said River coach Greg Dyer.
Lord Botetourt took most of the track team to Charlottesville as well, accounting for low finishes in the Cosmo. Max Burke took a seventh in the high jump at the Dogwood.
At Fleming, Lord Botetourt’s John Turner took a fifth in the Senior shot put and Jake McNutt won the Junior boys discus.
This week LB is scheduled to run in the Knights Invitational at Cave Spring. James River was originally entered in that event but has dropped out with the Conference 38 meet scheduled for Monday at Floyd County High School.
