By Sports editor Brian Hoffman
The Christiansburg boys and Hidden Valley girls were team winners when the Region 3D cross country meet was held at the Smith River Sports Complex in Axton last week. The William Byrd girls were seventh and the boys were eighth in the region meet.
This year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, only two schools advanced to this week’s Class 3 state meets at Green Hill Park in Roanoke County. The Christiansburg girls finished second to qualify as did the Lord Botetourt boys. Individual champs were Reese Bradbury of Hidden Valley in a time of 19:32 and Isaac Thiessen of Abingdon in 16:22.
None of the Byrd athletes advanced but it was a good day none the less, as nine Terrier runners ran personal best times. Freshman Claire Glover led the girls’ team with a personal best of 22:40, finishing 20th among 62 runners. Also scoring for Byrd were Olivia Hurd in 28th, Maci Glass in 37th, Emma Gordon in 38th, and Elizabeth Recktenwald in 43th. Bethany Beecher and Riley Roth also ran and Emma, Elizabeth, Bethany and Riley all ran personal best times.
For the boys Ryan Krawczyk finished up his high school career with an 18th place finish in 17:50. That was almost 30 seconds better than his previous best and just three spots from being named “All-Region.” Dakota Bell was 48th, Kollin Slusher was 51st, Reagan Lilley was 54th and Brayden McCulloch rounded out the Byrd scoring at 55th. Case Crawford and Payten Richardson also ran and Reagan, Brayden and Case joined Krawczyk with personal bests.
Krawczyk and Glover were named “Most Valuable Runners” for the team while Richardson and Recktenwald received the Coaches Award. Slusher and Belcher have joined the Marine Corp and Krawczyk joined the Army with delayed entry after he graduates from Virginia Tech.
“I feel very lucky and proud to have had them as runners and know they are going on to serve our country and protect us all,” said Byrd coach Eric Royal.