Raider girls, PCM’s Ellens win at Lynnville-Sully Invitational

LYNNVILLE — When Prairie City-Monroe’s boys run and the Collins-Maxwell/Baxter girls run at cross country meets this season, results are going to be the same in most cases. PCM senior Chris Ellens is going to win the individual boys’ title while the CMB girls claim their division’s championship.

It was so Thursday at the Lynnville-Sully Invitational on the Diamond Trail Golf Course.

CMB’s Raider girls placed their top five runners in the top 10, finishing with 34 points to win their fourth straight meet title. Pekin was second with 55 points while PCM’s girls finished third with 148 points.

“It was really nice to compete against Pekin tonight,” CMB head coach Jerry Meinerts said. “They’ve got such a great program and have been great for many years. Our girls were up for the challenge. We knew they were a great team and we had to bring our best.”

Also in the girls’ division, Colfax-Mingo took fifth with 183 points and Lynnville-Sully scored 194 points for sixth. There were 10 complete teams competing in the high school girls 5K race.

Lynnville-Sully head cross country coach Darin Arkema said it was great the weather cooperated this year after the team battled rainouts the last few years of its home meet. He said it ended up being quite warm and sunny, which made things more challenging.

“Our course already has some tough sections. We hosted some really strong 1A and 2A competition with 17 schools competing,” Arkema said. “It was a great opportunity for us to again host a home meet at the Diamond Trail Golf Course in Lynnville. Our team gets to compete at home where it’s easy for family, fans, and community members to come out and support them.”

Southeast Warren’s Elise Emmick was the girls’ individual winner in 21 minutes, 41 seconds. Pekin’s Shea Dahlstrom was just ahead of CMB’s Ashlee Johnson for second in 21:51 and 21:57.

Johnson led the CMB girls in a 3-6-7-8-10 individual finish. Colfax-Mingo’s Dakota Hostetter held off CMB’s Heather Jessen to claim fifth place in 22:26 to Jessen’s 22:56.

Breanna Thomson finished seventh in 23:08 followed by Lauren Ratliff in eighth at 23:10. Taking 10th place was Shasta Moody in 23:32 to complete CMB’s team score.

“Our game plan going in was just to run for places and not worry about the clock,” Meinerts said of the CMB girls. “Our girls’ legs were a little tired from a tough week of practice. Each and every one of our girls competed hard, knew where they were against our competition and really just ran a smart race. Next week, we’ll cut them loose a little and try to drop our times.”

On a hot, muggy late afternoon, Ellens went to the front of the high school boys’ race and stayed there, winning in 17:29. Two Pekin runners — Ryan Millikin and Malcolm Myers — ran the 5K course in less than 18 minutes, 17:42 and 17:59.

It was Ellens third consecutive win and came on the heels of a victory Monday at Pleasantville.

Pekin was the team champion in the boys’ race with 42 points. CMB’s boys placed second with 97 points and Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont was third with 119 points.

Lynnville-Sully’s boys were eighth with 245 points as PCM was ninth with 270 points. Colfax-Mingo place 11th in the 13-team field with 326 points.

Three other area boys scored top-10 finishes Thursday. CMB’s Logan Berg and Ian Thomson were fifth and sixth, respectively, in 18:39 and 18:48. Colfax-Mingo’s Cameron Warner took 10th in 19:16.

“Overall, we ran some very good races on a tougher course tonight,” Colfax-Mingo head coach Zach Tomas said. “Cameron has really been running some solid meets with his second consecutive top-10 finish. The girls race was loaded with ranked girls and teams. It was nice to see us have three girls in the top 30.”

Leading PCM’s girls to third place was Kirstin Ives, who ran the course in 24:03 for 12th place. Jayci Vos finished 26th in 25:47 and Megan Townley was 29th in 25:53. Rachel Stafford was PCM’s No. 4 runner, taking 32nd in 26:10, and Breanna Vanderpool was 49th in 28:04.

Joining Dakota Hostetter in the team scoring for Colfax-Mingo’s girls were Abbey McConeghey in 15th at 24:41, Delaney Underwood in 28th at 25:52.61, Jodine Woods in 66th at 29:13 and Ilia Hostetter in 68th at 29:20.

Lynnville-Sully’s top finisher in the girls’ race was Abby Gruver in 21st place with a time of 25:05. Christine Nikkel placed 30th in 26:00.50 followed by Emily Van Gorp in 35th at 26:49, Ashton Thomson in 52nd at 28:11 and Lydia Akergren in 56th at 28:28.

“Our girls had a solid finish in sixth place, unfortunately again just short of conference foe Colfax-Mingo like we were on Monday at Pleasantville,” Arkema said. “If we can close the gap between our third runner to our 4-5-6 runners, we’ll make up that difference.”

CMB’s boys went into the race looking to finish in the top four as a team. Meinerts said the second-place team finish was great, and the Raiders were chasing Class 2A 15th-ranked Davis County in the meet.

“Our boys’ team has been a team to watch the past couple of weeks in the rankings, so I’m hoping this pushes them into the top 15,” Meinerts said. “Our times weren’t fantastic, but anyone who knows the course would be impressed with what we did tonight. This was our first meet with a different No. 1 runner. Both Logan and Ian ran great races.”

Carter Fricke claimed 16th in 19:57 as CMB’s No. 3 runner in the race. Josh Brunt took 32nd in 21:04 and Noah Rhoades finished 38th in 21:08.

Lynnville-Sully’s boys were led by Jared Craver’s 30th-place finish in 20:42. Ty Breeden placed 37th in 21:01 followed by Josh Dunsbergen in 43rd at 21:18. Luke Jones came in 66th at 22:43 right ahead of Joseph Anderson, also at 22:43, in 67th.

“Our boys were able to top PCM tonight, which was ahead of us at Pleasantville Monday,” Arkema said. “We again had a tight pack from fourth runner to seventh runner. The difference going forward is to get that group of guys to work together to get closer to No. 3. Montezuma is a conference foe they need to set their sights on.”

Jason Stafford was PCM’s No. 2 runner Thursday, finishing 19th in 20:03. Jacob Cox took 55th in 22:05.43, Brady North placed 62nd in 22:22 and Caleb Peter was 75th in 23:05.12.

Colfax-Mingo’s second finisher was Cyden Fitch in 64th place in 22:29. Nic Duffy was 69th in 22:53 followed by KC Huffman in 85th at 23:34 and Michael Looney in 98th at 24:42.

“We are really starting to see a lot of improvements and think we are in a good place heading into the end of the season,” Tomas said of the Colfax-Mingo runners. “We can accomplish some great things if we can get everyone to run to their potential in the same meet.”

CMB’s team run at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday at the West Marshall meet. Lynnville-Sully and Colfax-Mingo join PCM at the 4 p.m. in Thursday’s PCM Invitational in Monroe.

Here are the rest of the area competitors from Thursday’s meet:

Girls

CMB — 19. Holly Jessen, 24:50; 24. Whitney Spencer, 25:29; 27. Anna Jones, 25:52. 70. Bryn Schultheis, 29:39; 87. Olivia Pasquirello, 31:44.

PCM — 51. Morgan Uhlenhopp, 28:07; 99.Katie Henkenius, 35:52.

Colfax-Mingo — 69. Payton Rhone, 29:22; 80. Morgan McKinney-McGill, 31:02.45; 82. Mollie Greve, 31:10; 85. Chloe Forck, 31:25; 93. Courtney Burdess, 33:01.

Lynnville-Sully — 63. Haley Breeden, 28:58, 72. Hailey Scandridge, 29:54; 76. Brittney Hansen, 30:28; 84. Kristine Jaennette, 31:19.50.

Boys

CMB — 53. Carter Davis, 21:59; 79. Brady Ross, 23:20; 90. Brendyn Padget, 23:53; 99. Connor Post, 24:43; 105.Carter Merryman, 25:05; 108. McCade Gowdy, 25:17; 119. Addison Swaab, 26:26; 134. Austin Galbraith, 30:47.

Lynnville-Sully — 68. Cody Gibbs, 22:46; 72. John Trettin, 22:56; 76. Jim Trettin, 23:05.71; 131. Derik Albee, 20:24.

PCM — 77. Cody Courtney, 23:06; 78. Mark Bruxvoort, 23:11, 82. Carson Clark, 23:30; 83. Blake VanDerKamp, 23:31; 96. Owen Hugen, 24:31: 100. Bradley McClellan, 24:49.36: 113. Brendon Vanderpool, 25:44.7; 116. Payton Konek, 26:12.2; 120, Ayrton Breckenridge, 26:33; 130. Cooper VandeLune, 29:35.

Colfax-Mingo — 106. Jordan Lescaleet, 25:10; 115. Jake Frier, 25:53; 129. Will Dunsbergen, 29:16

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com