The Lord Botetourt boys and Fort Defiance girls won varsity division titles in the eighth annual Alleghany Invitational cross country meet at the Jackson River Sports Complex in Covington last Saturday. The William Byrd boys and girls teams were among the 16 schools competing.
In the boys division DeShawn Austin ran his first cross country meet and led the way with an impressive time of 19:13, finishing 57th among 120 runners. DeShawn got out quickly and settled into the race.
“Pacing was an issue that we need to work on,” said Byrd coach Eric Royal. “This comes with racing. It takes time to figure out when and how to push the pace and commit to the race. I’m excited to see his competitive drive and hopefully it will wear off on others.”
Dakota Bell, Stephen Underwood, Regan Lilley and Brayden McCulloch rounded out the scoring for the Terriers, who finished 15th as team. Ramsey Corbin of Fort Defiance was the team winner in a time of 16:14.26.
In the girls’ race Olivia Hurd was the top finisher for Byrd, running a season’s best time of 21:16.57 for 20th place among 98 girls. Ella Johnston of Lord Botetourt won the race in 19:12.97.
Claire Glover and Maci Glass were next for Byrd, battling to the finish. Glover finished 29th and Glass was 30th with just a half a second between them. Rebecca Qui, Emma Gordon and Bethany Beecher all ran competitive races.
In the JV race four of the six runners set personal records in the race. Riley Roth was the top finisher with a 10th place finis,h running 26:13, followed by Skylar Fitzgerald, Kristianna Fitzgerald, Emma Rupe, with a big PR of over two minutes, Liz Dixon and Megan Higgins.
The Middle School race saw Heidi Wienke and Elena Mullen finish fourth and fifth, respectfully, while Lucy Whitenack and Leah Wood ran solid races. The boys’ top finisher was Kevin McCaskill in 14th overall while Christopher Hurd and Riley Slusser set personal records in the 3000m race. Rounding out the Byrd group was Owen Webb.
The Terriers were scheduled to run at Waid Park in Franklin County for a Blue Ridge District preview meet on Tuesday. They’ll be at the Greenfield Sports Complex in Daleville for a meet on October 9.