Raiders, Hawks and Patriots place within top-10 of track state championships

ROBBY FLETCHER Sports Editor

With every run, jump and throw leading up to the events taking place at Liberty University for the Class 4 outdoor track and field championships, four local athletes can now call themselves state champions.

It was a great two days of events for fans of Patrick Henry, Hanover and Atlee on June 2-3, who each had at least one athlete end their seasons with a gold medal around their necks.

Both Atlee and Hanover had their boys and girls teams finish within the top-10 of the team standings, while Patrick Henry’s boys team finished sixth, the highest of the three schools. Atlee’s boys finished with 24.50 points to finish ninth and the girls finished seventh with 37 points. Hanover’s boys placed seventh with 26 points while the girls had 36 points and an eighth place finish.

Atlee junior Josie Rempe had a historic day at Liberty’s track, where she competed in four individual events and claimed a state title with her 300-meter hurdles time of 44.70 seconds. She edged out John Handley senior Elizabeth Imoh, who was close behind with a time of 44.92 seconds.

Rempe’s first place finish wasn’t the only thing that set her day apart from the pack. She also set school records in the 100-meter dash with a 12.24-second time in the preliminary and in the 200 dash, where her run in 24.79 seconds gave her second place. She ultimately finished fifth in the 100 finals and fifth in the triple jump (35 feet, 9 inches) to finish o her season with a masterclass performance across multiple events.

On Friday, the Raiders nearly won the boys 4x800 relay in a race that came down to a one hundredth of a second di erence between them and first place winner Blacksburg High School. Carson Echard started that race o for the Raiders, and along with Andre Chavez, helped the Raiders maintain a lead heading into the halfway point of the race. Blacksburg caught up though