Wildcats Finish Strong To Place Second In State
Tying its best finish in program history, the Rockbridge County High School boys cross country team placed second of 12 teams at the Class 3 state meet on Saturday morning at Green Hill Park in Salem.
The Wildcats scored 89 points to trail only state champion Western Albemarle (50). After the first kilometer, the Wildcats were in seventh place, but their top runners gradually passed other harriers to move up in the standings. RC also placed second to WA in the Region 3C meet, when the Warriors won by a slightly smaller margin of 36 points.
RC head coach Julie Tisone said the state meet “was an awesome race” for her runners. Tisone said her harriers “ passed a lot of people in the last three kilometers and did a good job.”
At the state meet, Lord Botetourt (84) placed third, while Christiansburg (64) and Abingdon (55) rounded out the top five. This was the RC boys’ first state meet appearance as a team since 2014, when they placed 12th under then-head coach Molly Keltner. The Wildcats last had a team advance to the state meet when the RC girls placed sixth at the Class 3 state meet three years ago.
The last time the RC boys placed second at the state meet was in 2002, with individual state champion and RC Athletic Hall of Famer John Crews leading them. RC also placed second in 2001.
Tisone, concluding her 10th season as the Wildcats’ head coach, said her runners “were aiming high” at the state meet. “We were ranked second, so I’m super happy that we got second. I’m super proud of them.”
With sunny weather and temperatures in the 60s, Lord Botetourt senior Ethan Thorne won the boys’ race, completing the flat 5-kilometer race in 15 minutes, 8.8 seconds. Senior teammate Eric Duncan placed second of 101 harriers in 15:29.
Leading the Wildcats was junior Sammy Eastwood. He was RC’s third runner after the first half of the race, but he passed harriers through- out the second half of the race and just missed all-state (top 15) honors by placing 16th in 16:23.4.
Going over his race strategy, Eastwood said, “I was just trying to start conservative and pick it up as I went along, so the first kilometer was pretty relaxed. I didn’t want to completely waste all my energy, and then sort of just gradually picking people off, drafting off someone and then moving up to the next person to draft off him.”
RC’s second runner was junior Tyler Ludtke, finishing 27th in 16:35.1, and junior teammate Oscar McClung finished 28th in 16:36.9. Also cracking the top 30 was RC sophomore Leif Guse (30th, 16:42.1). RC’s lone senior competing was Trent Cash (31st, 16:44.2).
The Wildcats’ final two runners were sophomore Grant Swenty (45th, 17:10.2) and junior Lincoln Steele (62nd, 17:49.5).
In addition to their runner-up finishes at the Region 1C meet and the Class 3 state meets, the Wildcats won the Shenandoah District championship last month, their first district title in recent history. This year, the Wildcats moved from the Valley District, in which they placed sixth last year, to the Shenandoah District, with shorter travel distances to district meets this fall.
Reviewing the fall season and the state runner-up finish, Eastwood said, “It means so much to us. It’s really been the culmination of a really great year. This is what we were working towards.”
Ludtke said that the Wildcats had their sights set on defeating Western Albemarle, a program with nine state titles. “We were hoping to beat them, but you know what, it doesn’t always go our way,” said Ludtke.
“It was a Hail Mary,” added Ludtke. “On paper, it looked like they were gonna cook us,” We spent a lot of time thinking about how we were gonna beat them. We all changed up our racing technique a little bit. We had to be a little risky.”
Representing the senior class in his final cross county race for RC, Cash said, “I’m super happy with this team. We haven’t had too much success in the past. This year, we really brought it together. I feel like we had a connected team. Over the summer, we spent a lot of time together. I think that really helped us.”
Several of the Wildcats plan to race in the Nike Cross Regionals Southeast Championships in Cary, N.C. on Saturday, Nov. 22. After that, many of the Wildcats will focus on running indoor track for the East Coast Elite club track and field team, coached by Drew Ludtke, father of Tyler.
Eastwood is one of the runners who will practice and race with the East Coast Elite team for the indoor season in the winter and the outdoor team in the spring. After that, he’ll be a senior and will set his sights on helping the Wildcats go for the state cross country title. “In the fall, I’m gonna come back, and hopefully we’re gonna win next year,” he said. “I expect our team to be better next year.”
The RC boys, guided by Tisone and assistant coach Hallie McCurdie, had just two seniors this year, Cash and Ethan Erksine.
From the RC girls’ team, which placed fifth at the district runners, led by this year’s top runner, freshman Reagan Imler.
For the RC boys, Tisone said having six of their top seven run-
