By Marty Gordon
The trophy might say 2022, but not much has changed in the past five years. Blacksburg has again won the state Class 4 cross-country championship in both the boys’ and girls’ divisions.
Blacksburg’s Conner Rutherford was the overall winner with a time of 15:46. Teammates James Roach (ninth) and Zach Davis (10th) helped the Bruins to 64 points, good enough for the win. John Handley was second on the Blacksburg boys’ team.
Western Albemarle finished third with 71 points and Atlee ran to a fourth-place finish with 84 points
While the Blacksburg girls’ did not have a top nine finisher they outdistanced second-place Atlee 105 to 101 for the state championship. Tuscarora was third and Jamestown finished fourth.
Individually, Blacksburg’s Reece Bradbury finished 10th and Allie McDonald cma home in 22nd place.
In Class 1, regional champ Eastern Montgomery finished a distant fourth in the boys’ standings and sixth on the girls’ side of the course.
Auburn’s Andrew Tickle finished 11th in the boys’ competition as the team was 11th in the team standings.
Kasey Rosenbaum claimed third place to pace the Eastern Montgomery girls to their sixth-place finish.
In Class 3, Christiansburg’s Lawson Mecom was third in the boys’ competition. Christiansburg finished fifth in the boys’ race and 7th in the girls’ event.
