PCM’s Ellens turns in top finish for area boy harriers at Knoxville Invitational

KNOXVILLE — Prairie City-Monroe senior Chris Ellens and Pella junior Blaise Winegardner are friends on and off the cross country course.

Ellens and Winegardner were the top two runners on the PCM boys team three years ago. That season, Winegardner advanced to the state meet as a Mustang freshman. The following year Winegardner transferred down the road, and Ellens took over as the Mustangs’ No. 1 runner.

Two seasons later, both are trying to make it back to the state meet in October, and for the first time in his career Tuesday, Ellens finished a high school varsity race before his former teammate when he bested five ranked runners on his way to a runner-up finish at the Knoxville Invitational at Pine Knolls Country Club.

Ellens couldn’t catch Grinnell’s Trenton O’Halloran in his final push but the Mustang senior finished the hilly course in 17 minutes, 16 seconds and edged Winegardner by 2.7 seconds.

“He’s my buddy, and it’s good to compete against him,” Ellens said of Winegardner. “Usually I am really far behind him so it felt good to run with him today.

“No matter how much you have lost to someone before, you know never what can happen so you just have to keep trying.”

Ellens came into the meet ranked 12th in Class 2A, while Winegardner was eighth in 3A. O’Halloran, who is ranked seventh in 3A, won the race in 17:15.4. Grinnell’s Thomas Clower (3A No. 5) and William Roberts (3A No. 29), Pella’s Nick Bernhagen (3A No. 30) and Indianola’s Seth Nostrala (4A No. 19) were other ranked runners in the field.

Ellens was better than all but one of them.

“We had some really good teams and some great individual runners so Chris knew he had someone to run with,” Karr said. “He told me after the race that he didn’t think he had that in him. I think his confidence continues to grow.”

Ellens is happy with where he is at right now, and he hopes to keep it going.

“I am proud of where I have come and how far I have come,” Ellens said. “It has been a great four years and I hope to keep it up.”

While Ellens was the only area runner to earn a top-10 medal, Newton had the best area finish of the day. The Cardinals finished seventh in the 20-team field. They trailed host Knoxville by two points without one of its top varsity runners.

Class 3A No. 3 Grinnell won the meet with 40 points, while 3A No. 7 Pella came in second with 43 points. Oskaloosa was a distant third with 100 points, while Indianola (131) and Winterset (148) rounded out the top five. Knoxville’s 223 points was two points better than Newton for sixth.

“We have four teams in this league that take down the best 4A teams consistently,” Newton coach Steve Weeks said. “The Little Hawkeye Conference is no joke.”

Colfax-Mingo was the next best area team in 14th with 400 points. PCM was 10 points back in 16th, while Lynnville-Sully took 17th with 424 points.

The Cardinals’ top finisher was on the day was senior Noah Sander, who crossed the line in 18th with a time of 18:23.7. Junior Jack Callaghan returned to the lineup and finished 23rd with a time of 18:44.6.

“It was a nice day to run,” Sander said. “I was trying to break 18 minutes. That didn’t happen today, but there was some great competition here for us to run against. That just pushes us to be even better.”

The final three scoring runners for Newton were junior Tyler Dafflitto in 54th, junior Dylan Main in 60th and freshman Luke Zaabel in 71st. Junior Brad Portner also finished 79th and freshman Addison Dunwell hit the finish line in 93rd.

“I think things went pretty well. We ran great,” Weeks said. “We were off on our target of where we wanted to finish, but Winterset was added that we didn’t know about. They look like a solid program.

“Knoxville edged us out by two points. We have been neck and neck with them all year.”

After Callaghan, the next two best area runners were from Colfax-Mingo — senior Cameron Warner and sophomore Cauy Fitch.

Warner ended up 38th with a time of 19:20.2. Fitch wasn’t too far behind in 52nd in 19:58.5. Freshman Cyden Fitch was next among Tigerhawks in 98th, while sophomore Jordan Lescaleet crossed the finish line in 111th and senior KC Huffman was the final counting runner in 113th.

“Our top two runners were great tonight. Cauy stayed with Cameron for a long time and Cameron ran one of his best races of the year,” Colfax-Mingo coach Zach Tomas said. “The boys have had a lot change in the middle of the lineup and as we finish up the year our boys are focused on trying to catch those conference schools. This was as close as we’ve been to Montezuma all year. They battled really well.”

The two other varsity runners for Colfax-Mingo were freshman Michael Loney in 118th and junior Jacob Frier in 130th.

After Ellens, PCM was led by freshman Jacob Cox in 97th, senior Mark Bruxvoort in 105th and junior Brady North in 110th. Junior Caleb Peter finished 112th as the final counting runner for the Mustangs.

“Mark Bruxvoort coming in as our third runner was great to see,” Karr said. “He’s been mentally confused on what’s going on. But he did well tonight. The times are incredible for this course. We just need to keep working hard. I am liking what I see.”

PCM freshmen Owen Hugen and Cody Courtney were 119th and 121st, respectively, as non-counting runners.

Lynnville-Sully was led by senior Jared Craver, who finished 78th in 20:39.2. Sophomore Ty Breeden (20:44.6) and junior Josh Dunsbergen (20:45.1) were nearly a second a part in 81st and 82nd. Senior Luke Jones was the fourth Hawk runner to cross the finish line, and he placed 96th. As the final counting runner, senior Luke Jones was 96th.

Junior Cody Gibbs finished 101st, while senior John Trettin was 120th.

Newton and PCM both compete at 4:30 p.m. Monday at Norwalk, while Colfax-Mingo and Lynnville-Sully run at 5 p.m. Monday at North Polk.