The cross country course at the Greenfield Recreation Center in Daleville will be the site of the annual Blue Ridge Invitational this Saturday. Both Salem and Glenvar will have runners in the field.
The meet will begin at 12:30 pm with a girls’ middle school two mile race, followed by a boys’ two mile middle school race at 1 pm. The varsity girls will follow at 1:30 pm, with the boys scheduled to take the gun at 2:10 pm. A girls’ jayvee race is at 2:45 pm and the jayvee boys will close out the day at 3:30 pm.
Schools scheduled to attend include Salem, Glenvar, Altavista Combined School, Bassett, Battlefield, Ben Franklin Middle School, Blacksburg, Northside, Patrick Henry, Pulaski County, Radford, Rockbridge, Skyline, Lord Botetourt and James River.
The Salem girls are coming off a first place finish in the Alleghany Invitational last Saturday. Salem edged out Christiansburg to win the title, beating a team they had trailed in three previous races this fall.
Salem erased the 45 second top five average lead that Christiansburg enjoyed just three weeks ago, while placing five girls in the top nine runners. In a dramatic finish, sophomore Carolina Bowen sped past a Lord Botetourt girl and two Christiansburg runners in the last 400m to win the race for Salem. Had Bowen placed behind those runners, Christiansburg would have won.
Leading Salem was sophomore Claire Peterson, placing 3rd with a time of 21:31. Peterson just edged out teammate Emma Chamberland, a freshman who placed 5th with a time of 21:35. Sophomore Alyssa Ingerson was sixth, a fraction of a second behind Chamberland, and Anna Pitts came in seconds after Ingerson with a time of 21:39. Bowen’s winning sprint rounded out Salem’s top five with a 9th place finish and a time of 22:15.
Salem placed second in the JV race, with Andrew Lewis 8th graders Katelyn Crumpacker (2nd) 21:34, Emily Johnson (3rd) 23:22, and Zoe Prosser (4th) 23:49 all winning medals for Salem. This was Crumpacker’s third 2nd place JV finish in a row. Currently, Crumpacker is the 9th ranked 8th grader in Virginia in the 5k distance.
Salem’s boys varsity team was fourth out of seven schools. The Christiansburg boys won the team title.
Gavin Conner was the top finisher for the Spartans in 16th place. Aiden Sable was 17th and Kirill Daniel was 19th among 52 runners. Salem’s top finisher in the in the JV race was Walker Chambers, who placed 10th overall.