Both the Salem and Glenvar cross country teams, as well as Andrew Lewis and Glenvar Middle Schools, will be competing in the 21st annual Knights Crossing cross country invitational at Green Hill Park this Saturday. It will be the largest cross-country invitational ever held in southwest Virginia.
“We are very excited about this year’s invitational that currently has 102 high schools and 63 middle school teams attending,” said Cave Spring coach Tommy Maguire. “We already have well over 3,000 runners entered to race on September 6th. This will be our biggest Knights Crossing XC Invitational yet and one of the largest athletic events held in the Roanoke Valley this year.”
Teams will be traveling from Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia while several teams are making the trip from Richmond and Northern Virginia areas. Every local school will be represented.
“This historic year also looks to be one of the fastest fields in our 21 years of hosting,” said Maguire.
The cross country season began for most area teams with the “Bengal Clash” at the Smith River Sports Complex in Axton last Thursday, hosted by Bassett High School. The Abingdon boys and Christiansburg girls came out on top in the varsity team meets and while Glenvar and Salem both competed as well.
Glenvar finished second and Salem was third among 23 teams in the varsity boys’ race. For Glenvar, Tyler Davis was 10th overall followed by Aldin Smith in 13th, Asher Faught in 23rd, Azahary Elijah Davis in 40th and Casey Weeks in 44th place. For Salem, Austin Prosser was 14th, John Stovall was 15th, Isaac Snow was 22nd, Thomas Scharp was 34th and Grant Horner was 60th. There were 199 boys in the varsity race.
In the girls’ varsity race Glenvar was eighth and Salem was 15th among 19 teams. Scoring for Glenvar were Anna Hall in 16th, Rayya Bryson in 26th, Everly Shanks in 27th, Genna Shanks in 85th and Naomi Kidd at 107. For Salem, Caroline Huff was 33rd, Ashlyn Davis was 56th, Harper Rocovich was 71st and Hannah Patel was 99th. There were 144 girls who finished the race.
Local runners won both the boys’ and girls’ jayvee races. Glenvar’s Jaxson Kuzmich won the boys’ jayvee race in 18:30 and Salem’s Keeley Prosser won the girls’ race in 23:16, 16 seconds ahead of teammate Olivia Huff who finished second. Kuzmich’s time would have been 27th in the varsity race and Prosser’s time would have been 20th in the girls’ varsity race. The Glenvar boys’finished first as a team in the jayvee race and Salem’s Matt Palleria was sixth, earning a medal.
“The hard work the kids put in this summer is already paying off,” said first year Glenvar coach James Osborne. “Most of the team ran their best times on this course ever, some running three to four minutes faster than last year.”
