The Shadow
After two extremely successful weeks by both Alleghany Cougars’ cross-country teams, this eager community will see the hard work of many runners unfold during the State Meet this coming Saturday. “The Alleghany girls punched their ticket to their 4th consecutive State championship on November 1st at the Region C Race in Fluvanna County,” Head Coach Jeremy Bartley said. “This will be the programs 1st trip as a 3A team.”
Prior to the race on November 1st, in Palmyra, Virginia, both the males and females ran in the Jefferson District Championship on October 24 in the 5000-meter race. Typically, Alleghany wouldn’t have been in this race, but as Head Coach Jeremy Bartley explained, it was necessary for the process of elimination. The Lady Cougars who competed were Kiera Lowman (who secured second with a time of 18:57.40), Nevaeh Wills (21:36.90), Macyn Cash (22:15.50), Faith Barron (23:08.40), Hannah Hipes (23:43.30), Meredith Minter (25:37.40), Maggie Hensley (26:40.40), and Haley Harmon (28:38.80). These girls just squeezed through to run in the Region 3C Championship.
In the Region 3C Championship that took place on November 1st, the following girls competed: Kiera Lowman (who finished first with a time of 18:31.50), Macyn Cash (20:32.90), Nevaeh Wills (20:43.20), Faith Barron (21:36.30), Hannah Hipes (23:00.20), Meredith Minter (24:07.20), and Maggie Hensley (24:17.30).
The boys who competed in the 5000-meter on October 24th were Josh Anglin (19:08.), Evan Bishop (19:17.90), Trevor Jonas (19:19.80), Nick Powell (19:54.20), Nolan Nicely (20:13.20), James Ross (20:58.90), Zeke Downey (21:45.40), Rilee Webb (21:56.90), Miles Christian (22:05.90), Calvin Craft (24:11.30), and Jackson Westfall (24:11.40). The boys would not be as fortunate and were eliminated.
“Three Alleghany men also competed in the Region Race: Josh Anglin, Trevor Jonas and Evan Bishop,” Head Coach Jeremy Bartley said about the November 1st race. “We were proud of our 3 guys and are looking forward to next year where we hope to become contenders.” Their impressive times were as follows: Josh Anglin (18:33.50), Trevor Jonas (19:00.10), and Evan Bishop (19:00.40).
Up next for the Lady Alleghany Cougars is the Virginia High School League (VHSL) Class 3 State XC Meet 2023 to be held in Salem and hosted by Cave Spring High School. Several races are scheduled that day and will begin at 10:30 a.m. The Lady Cougars who will be competing (in alphabetical order) are as follows: Faith Barron, Macyn Cash, Haley Harmon, Maggie Hensley, Hannah Hipes, Kiera Lowman, Meredith Minter, Nevaeh Wills.
Head Coach Jeremy Bartley, clearly proud of his teams’ accomplishments-and why shouldn’t he be- also shared that “[Kiera]Lowman doubled as region champion while [Macyn] Cash is all Region, Kiera Lowman won her 2nd Region championship, and Macyn [Cash] repeated as all region (15th place)… We are really happy to be able to go to the State meet again as a team,” Bartley said. “Our goals for the state meet are to run our fastest races ever. If we all run our best race, then placing doesn’t matter. Our big goal is top 4 or 5.”
The Virginian Review wishes these girls the best on Saturday! Go Cougars!
