After the past few years of piling on mileage in the summer in preparation for cross country and track seasons, it all came together for Collins-Maxwell-Baxter’s Aaron Ward on Monday.

Ward signed a letter of intent to run for coach Bill Huntington at Southwestern Community College, which is located in Creston. Ward is coming off a cross country season in which he qualified for his first state meet and will run distance events for the CMB track team this spring.

“I’m very happy for Aaron as he continues his running career at Southwest Community College,” CMB cross country coach Jerry Meinerts said. “I was very happy to see the progress that Aaron made throughout his high school career, finally getting that opportunity to run at the state cross country meet his senior year.”