March 28, 2024

CMB girl harriers win seventh title

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JEWELL — Another meet, another title for the Collins-Maxwell/Baxter girls cross country team.

The Class 2A No. 5 Raiders put five runners in the first 14 positions and won the Jim Klein Cross Country Invitational at Jewell Golf and Country Club.

Sophomore Brenna Thomson led the way for CMB with a third-place finish. The Raiders scored 40 points and best Class 3A Gilbert by 82 points. The Tigers ran their junior varsity runners.

“We still have some room for improvement, and we need to fix some things before conference and regionals,” CMB coach Jerry Meinerts said. “Gilbert will be running its varsity at conference, and our girls are looking forward to a chance to see where we stack up against them. We were hoping to do that tonight.”

Sophomore Ian Thomson led the CMB boys with a 13th-place finish.

The Raiders were 13th as a team though as they continue to work their way back from injuries.

Brenna Thomson had plenty of help in leading the Raiders to their seventh team championship in eight meets this season.

Thomson finished in a season-best 20 minutes, 46.78 seconds. Senior Heather Jessen was sixth overall with a time of 21:20.05, while junior Ashlee Johnson finished eighth in a season-best 21:35.96.

Sophomore Lauren Ratliff grabbed a fourth top-10 finish for CMB as she hit the finish line in 10th with a season-best time of 21:45.38. The final counting runner was sophomore Shasta Moody, who finished 14th in a season-best 22:12.83.

The two non-counting runners for CMB were freshman Holly Jessen in 21st and senior Winter Brown in 33rd. Brown ran a season-best time of 23:15.

“It was a great team race tonight,” Meinerts said. “Five of our girls ran their fastest times of the season tonight.”

CMB and Gilbert were followed in the standings by East Marshall (130), West Marshall (148) and Panorama (156). Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center had the top two finishers in freshman Kate Crawford (20:22) and junior Emma Swanson (20:35), but the 1A No. 7 Chargers were sixth as a team.

The 3A No. 5 Gilbert boys cruised to the team title in the varsity boys race.

The Tigers placed four in the top eight and scored 38 points on the night. South Hamilton, ranked fourth in 2A, were second with 106 points.

Class 1A No. 4 AC/GC (117) was third, East Marshall (119) was fourth and 2A No. 14 Ogden (162) placed fifth.

CMB scored 300 points in 13th. The Raiders trailed 3A Nevada by a point.

Ian Thomson’s 12th-place finish was clocked in a season-best time of 17:29. He finished a few seconds behind two other ranked runners in 2A. Ogden’s Andrew Stumbo, the third-ranked runner in 2A and the 2015 1A champ, won the race in 16:38.

“Ian ran a really good race tonight with some really good competition,” Meinerts said.

CMB freshman Logan Berg did not run because of an illness. Juniors Carter Fricke and Max Van Maanen are both working their way back from injuries.

Fricke was 67th overall, while Van Maanen did not run.

Sophomore Josh Bruntz was the second Raider to cross the finish line Thursday. He finished 59th with a season-best time of 19:16.

Fricke’s time was clocked at 19:27. Junior Noah Rhoades was 73rd and junior Brendyn Padget placed 89th as the final counting runner.

Rhoades and Padget both ran season-best times of 19:34 and 21:15, respectively.

“It was good to see Josh and Noah up there under 20 tonight,” Meinerts said. “Hopefully we can keep them there. (Fricke) ran better with the cast tonight. He should have that thing off by regionals, which will be nice. I’m hopeful we will be back to full strength by regionals.”

Freshman Carter Davis was 91st and sophomore Addison Swaab finished 93rd as the two non-counting varsity runners. Swaab ran a season-best time of 21:52.

The Raiders run in the Heart of Iowa Conference meet at 5 p.m. Monday in Des Moines. Saydel is the host school.