Four area teams send runners to Ballard Invite

BALLARD — Nearly 1,800 distance runners from middle school all the way up through the high school varsity level gathered at Ballard Country Club on Monday afternoon to compete in the prestigious Ballard Invitational.

Runners were divided into four classes — A, B, C and D — with local area teams Lynnville-Sully and Colfax-Mingo competing in Class D and Collins-Maxwell/Baxter and Prairie City-Monroe running in the Class C group.

North Polk won the title in the Class C boys’ division with 41 points. Panorama was second with 78 followed by Eagle Grove with 102 and CMB rounded out the top four with 130 points. PCM finished 10th out of the 10 teams.

Winning the Class C girls team title was Panorama with 79 points followed by South Hardin with 94. North Polk was third (105). Roland-Story finished fourth with 118, and CMB was fifth with 137.

Lynnville-Sully topped South Hamilton to win the Class D girls division with 43 points. C-M was third with 87 points, followed by BCLUW (91) and Prairie Valley (116). Colfax-Mingo was 12th out of 12 teams.

Lynnville-Sully landed four runners in the top 15 of the Class D girls varsity race. Tara Vos led the Hawks, running th 4K course in 16 minutes. 31 seconds. Alexa Vander Leest posted a 16:35 for sixth place, and Cori Rice placed 10th in 17:03. Karli Roozeboom finished 14th in 17:17.

Elizabeth Van Manen was 23rd in 18:24 for Lynnville-Sully. Alexis Hardenbrook placed 28th in 19:06. Line Ascanius was 29th in 19:17.

“As the race was unfolding, I could see that we had all seven girls up in the front half of the pack, but because they run two classes together, I wasn’t sure who was in our class and who was class C,” said Darin Arkema, Lynnville-Sully head coach. “There were some other ranked 1A teams in our class, so for the girls to finish on top makes a big statement of their ability and how well they raced tonight.”

“Tara and Alexa weren’t separated by more than a few meters the whole race, pushing each other, working their way to the front. Cori and Karl also paired together and looked so strong the last mile of the race, passing several competitors,” Arkema said. “Those four all finishing in the top 15 really set the team up for a high finish. What completed that first place finish were the efforts of Lizzy, Alexis, and Line. Tonight they cut down that gap from Karli back to them, even with Karli running her fastest time of the season.”

CMB’s junior runner Mark Deutsch, who finished eighth was the fastest Raider finisher at 18:13 for the 5K race. He was followed by junior Colin Thomson in 10th at 18:17. Calvin Jones, a freshman, was 24th at 19:25. Eric Hall-Flooden (20:52) was 43rd. Connor Johnson (20:55) finished 45th. Drake Caple (20:59) and Brock Johnston (21:04) finished 47th and 48th, respectively.

“I thought our boys team took a big step in the right direction tonight,” CMB coach Jerry Meinerts said. “All of our guys were racing tonight, not jogging to finish, but racing the other runners throughout the whole course. Our boys were focused the whole race and their times showed. Colin Thomson ran a great race and he is really closing that gap between him and Mark. Mark continued to dominate and ran his best time of the season. Calvin Jones had another great race running under 20:00 for the first time this season. Our other four guys had some great times as well, and I look for all of them to be under 20:00 in our next couple races.”

Chasity Moody led the way for the CMB girls, finishing 21st (17:32). Heather Jessen was 23rd at 17:41. Winter Brown finished in 26th at 17:58. Anna Jones took 34th (18:16). Chantel Maxwell (18:18), Stephanie Twohey (18:19) and Mackenzie Klemme (18:22) finished in a pack together at 35-36-37.

“Our girls team competed well tonight. That’s four good teams that beat us tonight, and we just need to keep improving and closing the gap between us and those other teams. There was only a 46 second difference between our No. 1 girl and our No. 7 girl,” Meinerts said. “That’s pretty good, we just need our pack of girls to continue improving and dropping those times, and we will be in a pretty good position to compete for the win at some of our meets coming up. We are a really young team, and once we get this racing figured out, our girls are going to be pretty good.”

For PCM’s girls, Rachel Stafford led the way with a top-10 finish (17:00). Rachel Peter was 30th with a time of 18:10. Kayla Schakel was 47th (19:25). Shelby Palm finished 57th (20:28). Anber Beener (29:22) and Kayla Dustin (29:26) finished 69-70.

Matt Chizek finished ninth for the PCM boys with a time of 18:14. Chris Ellens was 39th (20:28). Trenton Howard was 51st (21:08). Mark Bruxvoort (23:32) finished 63rd. Connor Brey (23:12) and Lucas Rains (25:22) were back-to-back at 66-67.

Colfax-Mingo freshman Dakota Holstetter was second overall with a time of 16:13. She was followed in the Class D race by Kennedi Holstetter in 15th (17:29). Iva Moore, a junior, finished in 20th (17:57). Sarah Lahart (19:52), McKenzie Cogley (19:54) and Donita Fatland (19:55) finished back-to-back-to-back at 35-36-37. Breawns Schroder was 51st (21:42).

For the Tigerhawk boys, junior Jimmy Abell led the way with a time of 19:58, placing 29th. Chris Suva (21:55) finished 52nd. Cameron Lantry (23:01) finished in 59th, seconds ahead of teammate Ryan McLain (23:05) in 61st. Will Dunsbergen (23:31) was 65th. Adam Teed (24:50) finished 71st, and KC Huffman (25:35) rounded things out for C-M in 76th.

Colfax-Mingo cross country coach Zach Tomas pointed out some of the highlights for the boys.

“Senior Chris Stuva had his first meet of the season and narrowly missed a personal best time as the 2nd finisher for the boys. The boys also had personal best runs from Adam Teed and KC Huffman,” he said.

“The kids are really buying in and it shows every meet. The kids are getting out of their comfort zones and pushing to improve their times. We seem to be getting better every meet,” Tomas added.

Lynnville-Sully’s boys finished sixth in their division. Canyon Kuhlmann earned the ninth-place individual medal with a time of 18:39. Talon Woods ran 32nd in 20:25, followed by Jake Brand in 36th at 20:36, Ben Trettin in 38th at 20:54, Luke Jones in 47th in 21:43 and Jim Trettin in 49th at 21:51.

“Our guys had a huge improvement compared to last year’s race here. A year ago they finished eighth out of nine teams, but were sixth out of 12 tonight,” Arkema said. “Everyone who raced here last season was faster tonight, many of them by a minute or more. Canyon posted his second consecutive race in the mid 18’s. He is being much smarter at the beginning of races which has led to him being stronger during the middle and end.”

In the junior varsity races, Lynnville-Sully had Kasiah Ehresman finished 34th in 19:15, Kristy Sevcik in 70th at 20:22 and Kristine Jaennette in 78th in 20:39 for the girls, and Nic Lirio in 158th at 22:26, Bayley Morvant in 205th in 23:28, Lauri Ryyppo in 278th at 25:29 and Kordell Mueller in 296th in 26:46.

Lynnville-Sully’s junior high boys ran in the two-mile race. Lucas Roland finished 163rd in 15:56, Brett Maasdam in 247th in 20:17, Jared Bassett in 250th at 20:47 and Mason Dunsbergen in 252nd in 21:34.

Lynnville-Sully hosts its home meet Thursday at Diamond Trail Golf Course.