Hawk harriers run at Hillcrest Academy Invitational

KALONA — Lynnville-Sully’s Hawks had prepared to run at the North Polk Invitational cross country meet Monday at Alleman. But alas, wet weather over the weekend made that course too wet so Hawk coach Darin Arkema made a quick call.

For the second year in a row, the Hawk harriers switched gears and competed in Monday’s Hillcrest Academy Invitational at Kalona.

Hillcrest Academy was formerly known as Iowa Mennonite School.

“I was grateful to be able to get our team in and have a chance to compete tonight and keep our schedule for the week the same,” Arkema said. “This meet is loaded with talented individuals and teams in both boys and girls, as well as gives us one more race against some conference foes a week before our conference meet.”

The Hawk girls finished ninth in a 13-team field with 252 points. State-ranked Mid Prairie won with 45 points. In the boys’ division, Pella had the low score of 40 to win the title as Lynnville-Sully was 11th with 322 points.

Lynnville-Sully’s lone medal winner was Greenlee Smock who ran the girls’ 5K race in 21 minutes, 26.16 seconds, for 16th. Caitlin Alberts was 48th in 23:47 followed by Megan Van Zante in 55th at 24:19 and Brittney Hansen in 66th at 25:16.

Kendra Fikse placed 74th in 26:33 and Kinsley Tice was 76th in 26:41. Senior Abby Gruver ran her first race of the season coming off an injury. Gruver placed 85th in 27:58.

“It’s great for her to show herself that she can do it, and build some confidence,” Arkema said.

James Gruver led the Hawk boys with a 30th-place finish in 19:07 for the 5K race. Gentry Walston placed 70th in 21:14 with Mason Jansen finishing in 74th at 21:24.

“Gentry returned after missing last week. He and Mason were only separated by 10 seconds, and continue to feed off each other and push each other to improve,” Arkema said.

Zach Morningstar was 88th in 23:15 and Evan Fikse was 100th in 27:54.

Two other South Iowa Cedar League schools were in the Hillcrest meet — Montezuma and North Mahaska. Lynnville-Sully’s next meet is the SICL conference meet on Oct. 15 hosted by English Valleys at North English.

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