Area harriers featured in Lynnville-Sully Invitational

LYNNVILLE —Runners competing in the 2017 Lynnville-Sully Invitational cross country meet n Thursday saw the tweaks the Hawks provided in the 5K course. Competitors followed a bit different route winding around Lynnville’s Diamond Trail Golf Course.

It was a solid day on the home course by Lynnville-Sully’s teams. Yes, teams as the Hawk boys had five runners competing in a meet for the first time this season. The Hawk boys finished 11th in the 12-team field.

“Our home meet has become a large group of quality 1A and 2A teams, so it’s a great opportunity for us to host and compete against those teams,” Lynnville-Sully head coach Darin Arkema said.

“Our boys had an exciting night being able to compete for a team score for the first time. Our girls’ team finished fourth behind Pekin and Baxter who are both ranked 1A teams, as well as 2A PCM who has a strong team. We were in front of all the other SICL conference schools here tonight.”

Pekin brought its Class 1A-ranked teams to Diamond Trail, sweeping the team championships. The seventh-ranked Pekin girls scored 49 points to claim their title. The Panther boys won their second straight Lynnville-Sully Invitational title, holding off Pella Christian, 64 points to 67 points.

The Baxter Bolts’ girls, who are ranked No. 10 in Class 1A, claimed second place with 58 points. Prairie City-Monroe finished third with 89 points followed by Lynnville-Sully in fourth with 117 points. Colfax-Mingo was sixth with 145 points.

Baxter’s boys placed sixth with 167 points and PCM’s Mustangs were seven with 180 points. Colfax-Mingo was ninth with 195 points and the Hawk boys scored 268 points for 11th.

Competitors also had to deal with a warm, windy day at Diamond Trail. The top 20 individuals in each of the high school races were awarded medals.

Lynnville-Sully had five seniors running their final home meet — Josh Dunsbergen, Christine Nikkel, Haley Breeden, Hailey Scandridge and Mary Kate Shaver.

The race of the day came in the boys’ division. Baxter’s Logan Berg and Pekin’s No. 18-ranked Colten Glosser traded the lead throughout the race. Glosser edged Berg out at the finish line, winning in 17 minutes, 52 second to Berg’s 17:57.

Colfax-Mingo’s Cauy Fitch ran seventh in the race in 19:05. PCM’s Jason Stafford led his team with an 11th-place finish in 19:19. Also finishing in the top 15 was Baxter’s Ian Thomson, who was 14th in 19:32.

Lynnville-Sully’s Josh Dunsbergen and Mason Jansen set the pace for the Hawk boys, finishing in tandem in 47th and 48th, respectively, in 21:43 and 21:44. Joseph Anderson was 55th in 22:31 and Blaize Kuhlmann, who ran his first-ever cross country race, was 60th in 22:41. Luke Kramer was 119th in 29:37.

“Josh and Mason battled neck-and-neck through the final quarter mile pushing each other all the way to the finish line. Blaize and Joseph were able to push each and use each other to try and keep moving up through packs of competitors,” Arkema said. “Luke endured through some hip pain, not giving up, and fighting to the finish line. I look forward to seeing this group of guys continue to push each other, find their stride, and meet their end goals.”

Other scoring runners for the Bolt boys were Josh Bruntz in 29th in 20:46, Brendyn Padget in 76th at 23:38 and Will Hitchler in 81st in 23:52. McCade Gowdy placed 83rd in 23:57 followed by Christian Brandt in 105th in 26:48 and Sean Finch in 110th in 27:19.

Other scoring runners for Colfax-Mingo were Cyden Fitch in 28th at 20:28, Noah Strohmeyer in 41st at 21:21, Michael Loney in 58th at 22:37 an Jarod Nichols in 102nd at 26:19. Al Gibson took 104th in 26:42, Avery Lees was 109th in 27:19, Nathan Evans was 111th in 27:19 and Jacob Frier was 14th in 27:46.

PCM had 18 runners in the boys race. Helping with the team score at Thursday’s meet were Beau Webb in 22nd at 20:01, Brady North in 51st at 21:56, Jacob Cox in 54th in 22:27 and Cody Courtney in 57th at 22:35.

Southeast Warren’s Elise Emmick, ranked 14th in 1A, took control early on her way to her second consecutive Lynnville-Sully Invitational individual championship. She ran the course in 20:52 with 2A’s No. 18 Emma Kolb of Pella Christian in second at 21:11.

Baxter placed three runners in the top 15 led by Brenna Thomson, who earned the third-place medal in 21:37. Lauren Ratliff came across the line in ninth in 22:39 and Kailee Conradi was 14th in 23:25.

Colfax-Mingo’s Abbey McConeghey captured fourth in 21:52. Lynnville-Sully was led by Mary Kate Shaver in sixth place in 22:02, and PCM’s top runner of the day was Kirstin Ives, taking 10th in 22:49.

The Bolt girls had Ashjlee Johnson taking 19th in 23:54. Holly Jessen was 32nd in 25L26 and Piper Larson was 110th in 35.54.

Other scoring runners for the Mustang girls were Baylee Smith in 17th at 23:49, Klaire Jungling in 18th at 23:50, Megan Townley in 26th in 24:51 and Payton Schut in 42nd in 26:34. Ellie Steenhoek was 48th in 27:33, Sara Dudley was 111th in 36:40 and Maddy Buys was 115th in 37:53.

Other scoring runners for Lynnville-Sully were Abby Gruver in 22nd at 24:27, Megan Van Zante in 29th at 25:16, Christine Nikkel was 38th in 26:22 and Ashton Thompson in 46th at 27:28. Haley Breeden was 51st in 27:44 and Abigail Davis finished 56th in 27:53.

Brittney Hansen and Emily Van Gorp were 60th and 61st, respectively in 28:07 and 28:09. Hailey Scandridge was 79th in 29:57 and Hadley Tice was 104th in 34:20.

“Mary Kate was focused and determined tonight, racing in the top the whole way, beating some ranked 1A individuals and closing the gap to a few girls who have beaten her this season,” Arkema said. “I’m excited to see where she can get to over the second half of the season. Abby had a strong finish just missing the top 20 and a medal.

“We had Christine back in action tonight, and she got right back to work, finishing as our 4th runner. Our 5-8 runners continue to shuffle around, and it is this group that will need to be challenged as to who is going to rise up and become that consistent performer for us.”

Other scoring runners for Colfax-Mingo’s girls were Danielle Decker in 33rd at 25:28, Ilia Hostetter in 34th at 25:38, Delaney Underwood in 47th at 27:29 and Payton Rhone in 53rd at 27:48. Crystal Lincoln was 58th in 28:00 an Abbey Jones was 65th in 28:43.

The Tigerhawk girls had 17 runners in the race. Here are the rest of the Colfax-Mingo girls’ placings: 68. Daytin Jones, 28:55, 76. Rachel Smith, 29:29, 88. Chelsey Atwood, 31:03, 97. Courtney Burdess, 31:55, 98. Jodine Woods, 32:18, 99. Jodine Woods, 32:18, 100. Mollie Greve, 32:39, 103. Morgan McKinney-McGill, 33:59, 113. Miranda McGill, 36:59, 122. May Bisom, 43:19.

Here are the rest of the PCM boys’ placings: 63. Caleb Peter, 22:51, 68. Ayrton Breckenridge, 23:11, 71. Carson Clark, 23:17, 74. Gavin Padget, 23:31, 79. Brenden Vanderpool, 23:41, 85. Colton St. Pierre, 24:01, 88. Dylan Masterson, 24:13, 91. Bradley McClellan, 24:45, 93. Mason Shirk, 25:00, 103. Garrett Garber, 26:37, 113. Cooper Vandelune, 27:21, 118. Luke Kramer, 29:19, 122. Payton Konek.

“The past two weeks have been a challenging schedule for us, racing at five meets in 12 days. I know that with the heat combined with some tired bodies, performances maybe weren’t what some are hoping for, but I believe that once we get rested and continue to focus in training, we will be stronger and better able to meet our end of season goals,” Arkema said of his Lynnville-Sully runners.

Lynnville-Sully ran a combined middle school race for girls and boys. The runners went 1.7 miles on the course following the high school races.

Baxter’s teams compete Tuesday at West Marshall. Lynnville-Sully and Colfax-Mingo join PCM Thursday in the PCM Invitational at Monroe.

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