No region in the state has as strong of an individual runner finishing third at their regional championship than Tim Smith of Cave Spring as was the case at the Region IV Meet on Friday afternoon at Dan Daniels Park in Danville. The #8 ranked runner in Virginia, Smith could be a regional champion in virtually any other region, but had to be relegated to a third place finish with the showdown ahead of him between Virginia's top two ranked harriers in Griff Graves of Abingdon and Peter Dorrell of Blacksburg. Graves made certain there was little drama at the end of the race as he started to break away with a surge at the hill roughly around 1 1/4 mile and continued to press into the 1000 meter woods loop to gap Dorrell. The two-time AA state champion continued to push the pace and distance himself from his biggest threat for a third title next weekend at Great Meadows to finish 24 seconds ahead with a final time of 15:54. Dorrell appeared to shut it down in the final mile to save himself for another duel next week with a runner-up time of 16:18.
Meanwhile, Dorrell's Blacksburg boys led a River Ridge District sweep of the four teams advancing onto the state meet with Christiansburg, Cave Spring, and Hidden Valley joining Blacksburg in shutting out teams from the other districts of Region IV for a top four finish.
The big upset occurred though with the Hidden Valley girls defeating the defending AA state champions and Virginia's #2 ranked team from Blacksburg. The young squad with only freshmen and sophomores in their top five has great momentum heading into the state meet led by the Region IV individual champion in freshmen Annie LeHardy. LeHardy went wire-to-wire with Blacksburg senior Laurel MacMillan with a one second win of 19:23 on a challenging 5K layout at Dan Daniels Park. Pulaski County also made it out from the River Ridge District in third, while the Marion girls made sure it was not a complete sweep on both sides by the new district joining the old Region IV schools with a fourth place finish. The Blacksburg girls will hope to bounce back next week at full strength as they raced without two of their varsity runners in Allison Homer and Avery Mattingly.
More to come from Region IV including results, race videos, photos, and interviews with Griff Graves, Tim Smith, Annie LeHardy, and Laurel MacMillan.
Region IV Meet Video Interviews: Griff Graves - Tim Smith - Annie LeHardy - Laurel MacMillan