The Glenvar boys were ninth and the girls were sixth in the annual Blue Ridge Invitational cross country meet at the Greenfield Recreation Complex on Saturday. Salem also had selected runners in the boys race on a beautiful Botetourt County day.
“The meet turned out to be very successful even though we had to delay the start due to a traffic backup on interstate 81,” said Lord Botetourt coach Robert Sullivan. “To make up time we combined the middle school race so the other races started pretty much on time. Overall, I think it was a very good cross country meet with some talented teams running the challenging Greenfield course.”
Pulaski County won the boys varsity race, followed by host Botetourt. Rounding out the top five were Battlefield, Patrick Henry and Radford.
Jake Winesett of Pulaski won the race in 17:32, and the Cougars took four of the top five spots. Dustin Wade was the first Highlander, finishing in 26th place at 19:25. Adren Jacobs was 46th at 20:30 and also scoring were Peyton Fletcher, Bryant Loftis and Brendan Killeen.
Rockbridge County won the girls’ varsity race, followed by Pulaski, Radford, Battlefield and Skyline. A Pulaski runner also won the girls’ race, as Grace Boone finished with a time of 21:24.
Becky Linkous led Glenvar with a sixth place finish in 22:52 and Rachel Millirons was 13th at 23:44. Kailee Sesler wasn’t far behind at 24:29 and also scoring were Madison Osburn and Isabelle Pope.
Glenvar eighth grader Carly Wilkes won the jayvee race in 20:32 and Rachel Smith was fourth in 24:57.
Salem had two eighth grade boys running in the Middle School race. Tommy Henzey was 11th and Jon Shinal was 24th out of 47 total runners.
This weekend Salem and Glenvar are both scheduled to run in the “Runnin’ With The Wolves” meet at Jefferson Forest, and next Wednesday, October 18, is the annual Metro Cross Country Meet in Blacksburg.
