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Arvonia native Haden VonCanon was one of several Hampden-Sydney College cross country runners to place in the Top 15 at the Golden Acorn Invitational over the weekend. Overall, Hampden-Sydney as a team came in second at the event, hosted by Mary Baldwin University last Friday, Oct. 6 in Fishersville. 

Now as we mentioned, the Arvonia resident VonCanon finished in the Top 15. He came in 11th with a time of 23:41:8. The freshman, a 2023 graduate of the Veritas School in Richmond, is the son of Travis and Elizabeth VonCanon. As a high school senior, he was captain of the track and field team, along with Team MVP. He also won All-State honors. 

His teammate, Hampden-Sydney junior Kade Minton led the Tigers with his 6K time of 21:31.4 to place third among 27 runners. Eastern Mennonite University won the race with 29 points, while EMU’s Bellamy Immanuel was the individual winner with a time of 20:49.3. The Tigers also posted 29 points with their top five runners, but were edged 3-2 in the tie-breaker.

Minton was followed by freshman Jackson Herndon (22:17.0, 4th), senior Carter Burcham (22:19.3, 5th), sophomore Winston Ransone (23:04.1, 6th), Dylan Evans (24:15.3, 14th), Kam Maldonado (26:15.6, 18th) and Jefferson Duffey (26:30.3, 19).  

Sophomore Tommy Bennett (26:44.7, 21st), freshman Davis Mills (27:03.0, 23rd), along with juniors Dan Ludovico (28:45.5, 25th) and Zach Eason (29:18.5, 26th) also placed in the Top 30. It was the first time running a 6K at the collegiate level for each of the Garnet & Grey team members.

Hampden-Sydney’s cross country team will race again at the Roanoke Invitational, a traditional 8K cross country race, to be hosted by Roanoke College on Friday, Oct. 15, at 5 p.m. at Green Hill Park in Salem.