By Brian Hoffman
Green Hill Park in west Roanoke County will be the site of the Virginia High School League Class 1,2 and 3 cross country state championships this Saturday. The Glenvar boys’ team and Everly Shanks of the girls’ team qualified for the meet at the Region 2C meet at Green Hill Park last week.
This week’s state action begins with the Class 3 girls’ meet at 10:30 am, followed by the Class 3 boys at 11:15 am. The Class 2 girls are next at 11:45 am with the boys at 12:30 pm. The day wraps up with the Class 1 girls and boys at 1 and 1:45 pm, and the awards ceremony will follow.
The Glenvar boys finished with 65 points to finish just six points behind region champ Floyd County, who had 59. James River was third with 97, giving the Three Rivers District a sweep of state qualifying boys’ teams.
“A huge congratulations to the boys’ varsity team for being the VHSL Region 2C Runners-up and qualifying for the state meet,” said coach Amanda Spradlin.
The individual champ was Mason Erchull of Floyd with a time of 16:15. Glenvar was led by senior Heath Bowker who finished second in 16:32, and the Highlanders had four in the top 11 with Davis Norman seventh, Caeden Bowker ninth and Charlie Horrell 11th. Tyler Davis also scored with a 38th place finish among 73 runners.
Floyd also won the girls’ title with Alleghany second and Nelson County third. Glenvar was fourth, missing a trip to the state as a team by one spot and seven points.
Freshman Kiera Lowman of Alleghany was the individual champ with a time of 18:32. Glenvar’s Everly Shanks was 12th overall in 21:14 and that was good enough to qualify for the state. Others scoring for Glenvar included Joanna Killeen in 18th, Molly McCroskey in 22nd, Lauren Michael in 26th and Anna Hall in 27th. There were 56 girls in the race.
“The girls team ran their hearts out and finished an impressive fourth overall in the region,” said Spradlin. “We could not be more proud of our teams. All runners competed so well and nearly all of them ran new personal records. The hard work, grit, and determination these teams have displayed all season has been amazing. We look forward to watching the boys team and Everly compete this Saturday.”
