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The Rockbridge County High School cross country teams opened the season in Wilson Memorial’s Valley Cup Relays on Tuesday of last week in Fishersville, where the RC boys’ top team placed fifth of 32 teams and the RC girls’ top team finished 13th of 19 squads. Other Wildcats ran well individually in open races.
The relays consisted of teams of four, with each individual running 2 miles instead of the usual 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) on a challenging course that included a big hill to go up.
“The Valley Cup relays are always a nice way to begin the season,” said RC head coach Julie Tisone. “It’s a fun race, and it’s nice to start with a shorter distance. It’s also a good race to see how the runners stack up against each other.”
The Wildcats entered three relay teams in the boys’ relay and one in the girls’ relay.
RC’s Valley District rival Broadway won the boys’ relay, with their four runners finishing 8 miles in 42 minutes, 27 seconds. District rival East Rockingham placed second in 45:42, and Waynesboro finished third in 46:33, followed by district rival Spotswood in fourth in 47:21. The Wildcats had the seventh-fastest relay time, 47:49, nearly seven minutes faster than their time last year (56:23). However, they placed fifth due to the points system, scoring a total of 137 points by adding up the placings of runners. The top five teams in the points system were Broadway A (30), East Rockingham (107), Waynesboro (118), Broadway B (128) and RC (137).
Team members for RC’s top team were Sammy Eastwood, Trent Cash, Grant Swenty and Fisher Howald. Eastwood had the 19th-fastest 2-mile split of 128 total runners, finishing in 11:26.3, earning him a t-shirt by finishing among the top 25 runners. Cash then ran his split in 11:53.3, Swenty completed his in 12:09.5, and Howald finished his in 12:19.8.
The RC boys’ B team had the 20th-fastest time in 54:30. Team members were Luke Eichholz (13:06.7), Finn Miller (13:13.8), Ben Gresham (13:29.4) and Graham Niebur (14:40.1).
The Wildcat boys’ C team finished with the 30th-fastest time in 1:00:37 with team members Ethan Erskine (14:05.9), Hudson Saunders (14:23.2), Chase Potter (15:08.4) and Phillip Brooke (16:58.9).
Winning the girls’ relay was Spotswood, finishing in 49:26. Waynesboro placed second in 55:32, Fort Defiance finished third in 57:15, Wilson Memorial came in fourth in 57:26, and Harrisonburg placed fifth in 57:49. The Wildcats came in 13th in 1:04:22.
Running for the RC girls’ relay team were Dorothy Lewis, Evelyn McClung, Kate Holston and Hannah Ivins. Lewis finished her split in 14:12, the 21st-fastest split of 76 runners, earning her a t-shirt. Following Lewis were McClung (15:58.8), Holston (16:17.6) and Ivins (17:53.1).
Four Wildcats competed in the open 2-mile races.
Freshman Edison Rahl represented the RC boys’ in the open race, placing 23rd of 48 harriers in 14:36.9. Winning the race was Waynesboro’s Grayson Norris in 10:47.7.
Waynesboro’s Jazarah Hartzler won the girls’ open race in 15:06.7. Leading the RC girls was Alice Gresham, placing 28th of 37 runners in 19:50.5. RC’s Cate Skaggs followed in 31st in 20:45.7, and teammate Gemma Batis finished 36th in 23:42.9.
Reviewing the meet, Tisone said, “It was a great season opener.”
The Wildcats’ next meet will be the Knights Crossing Invitational at Green Hill Park in Salem, with Cave Spring playing host on Saturday, Sept. 7.
