Marty Gordon, NRVsports@ourvalley.org
The Auburn High School boys are bringing home a Class 1 state championship in track, while the Blacksburg High School girls are doing the same in Class 4. Competition was held in Harrisonburg this past weekend.
Auburn only had two state champs, Colton Honaker in the discus and Kobi Bonds in the shot and instead depended on consistent top five finishes to take the team-win for boys.
Blacksburg’s Reilly Thomas took top honors in the 800 meters, and Kensington Jones won the discus. Blacksburg’s 4×400 relay team also outran the competition for a first-place finish.
Reilly Thomas recorded an 800-meter time of 2:21 with teammate Tess Dickhans fifth.
Blacksburg also took second in both the 100 and 200 meters with Tamoy Douglas racing to the finish line.
Harper Olsen was fifth in the 1,600 and Josie Marshall fourth in the 110 hurdles. Mallory Fisher would finish tied for second in the pole value, and Blacksburg’s Lilly Ballowe was second in the long jump.
In addition to discus, Jones also took fifth in the shot. Blacksburg’s 4X800 relay team finished second.
For the boys, River Matthews took second for Blacksburg in the 3,200 and Nathan Chen was second in the 300 hurdles.
Back on the Class 1 side of the track. Kobi Bonds took first in the shot with a heave of 62-01. Teammates Raleigh Brown would finish second and Colton Honaker third. In the discus, Honaker claimed first with Bonds second and Brown third.
Eastern Montgomery’s Calvin Wilbon would take second in both the 1,600 and 3,200. His teammate, Will Gosnell was fourth in the 1,600. Eastern Montgomery’s Grayson Welcher was second in the 800.
Auburn’s Blake Brown finished fifth in the 1,600 and fourth in the 3,200 with Eastern Montgomery’s Spencer Sisson fifth.
The Auburn boys tallied 106 points with Eastern Montgomery second with 55 and Parry McCluer third with 54 points.
Isayah Hamman gave Auburn third places in both the 110-and-300-meter hurdles. Danton McClellan was second in the pole vault.
Gideon Miear gave Auburn another first with a high jump mark of 6-06. Eastern Montgomery’s Marshall Tate was third in the high jump. Tate would also finish third in the triple jump.
In Class 2 action, Radford would finish third in the boys’ competition and fourth in girls. Floyd took the team title in both brackets. In girls, Floyd had 63 points to second place Lee’s 62. Radford would finish with 42 points.
On the boys’ side of the track, Floyd tallied 68 points to Bruton’s second place 59 and Radford’s third place 35 points.
Raelin Adams gave Radford its lone state championship in the discus with a thrown of 128-01.5. She would finish third in the girls’ shot.
Essiq Williams would bring home a boys’ title in the triple jump with a mark of 45-02.5.
In Class 3, the Christiansburg girls would finish sixth and the boys team was 19th.
Heritage claimed the girls team title with 106 points. Fauquier was second with 51 points. Over in the boys’ ranks, Lord Botetourt took the team title with 62 points. Pulaski and Cave Spring finished tied for second with 56 points.
Mariah Reed gave Christiansburg second in the 1,600 meters girls’ event, and Ayva Haley was second in discus. Christiansburg’s 4×800 relay team finished fourth in the weekend competition.
