The Virginia High School League state track meets are coming to the Roanoke Valley. The VHSL meets for 1A through 4A will all be held at the new Roanoke College Kerr-Cregger Center in Salem this week.

The Group 1A and 2A meets are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, while the Group 3A and 4A meets will be held on Friday and Saturday. Byrd will have athletes in the 4A meet after competing in the Region 4A West meet last weekend.

To start off the week the 4x800m relay teams ran on Thursday at Harrisonsburg High School.  The Terrier boys 4x800m relay of Conner Lynch, Ashton Ashley, Westin Recktenwald and Ryan Moore finished fifth with a time of 8:47.27 while qualifying for the state track meet in frigid conditions.  The ladies 4×800 finished ninth with a time of 10:48.19, just missing the state qualfying mark.

On Saturday at Liberty University the Byrd boys 4x200m relay of Hunter Board, Christian Smith, Micheal Thomas and Jason Spaar finished third in the regional by running a school record time of 1:34.10, also qualifying for the state meet.  The boys 4x400m relay of Christian Smith, Jacob Woodcock, Jake Barker and Jesse Settle finished sixth with a time of 3:33.35, which was also a qualfiying place for the state track meet.

Byrd’s Westin Recktenwald finished fifth in the 3200 meter run with a time of 10:02.12, qualifying him for the state meet. On the girls side Ellasen Spangler placed third in the shot put with a school record throw of 34 feet, 2 inches.