March 28, 2024

Baxter's Tuhn cruises to easy win at Collins-Maxwell

CAMBRIDGE — Baxter newcomer Elie Tuhn's plan in her first cross country meet as a Bolt was to stay close to whoever was in first. And if she got out in front, the plan was to stay in front.

Tuhn indeed got in front early and no one was catching her. The Baxter junior blew away the field at the Collins-Maxwell Invitational at Center Grove Orchard on Monday night.

"There wasn't anyone to run with, but I think it was a good first meet," Tuhn said.

Tuhn won the girls' 5K race in 22 minutes, 3.5 seconds. The runner-up, Collins-Maxwell's Alexis Houge, crossed the finish line around 90 seconds later.

Baxter and Colfax-Mingo were competing for the first time this fall. A few runners were missing, but the weather cooperated and provided the runners with a warm evening to compete in.

It was much better than the original date last week when temperatues were in the mid-90s.

Tuhn, who ran for Class 3A Nevada the past two seasons, isn't exactly used to running way out in front of everyone else.

"It felt a different, but I felt really good today and the weather was nice," Tuhn said. "I was planning on staying behind the first girl, but if I got out in front the plan was to just stay in front. That's what I did."

Neither Baxter team had enough runners for a varsity score. Senior Kailee Conradi missed the meet due to a minor injury but could return to the lineup this weekend when the Bolts compete at Central College.

The Bolts competed with four girls and three boys on Monday. Colfax-Mingo had enough runners for a team score on both sides and finished fourth in the boys' race and fifth on the girls' side.

Three Tigerhawk boys earned top-15 medals as they scored 65 points as a team. The four scoring teams were separated by 17 points and Colfax-Mingo's top runner, sophomore Max VanDusseldorp, had some trouble with side pain and did not finish.

Sophomore Carter Gibson ended up fifth, while senior Noah Strohmeyer came in sixth and senior A.J. Gibson was 15th.

"Fourth was deceiving, but they score who is here and who finishes,"Colfax-Mingo coach Zach Tomas said. "I think we are in a good spot though. I think a little bit of it for us is that we didn't get as much training in last week with the heat as we would have liked.

"We have to get some more distance on our legs, but that will come. I am happy with where we are at so far."

VanDusseldorp was running in his second place when he decided he couldn't continue about 1.5 miles in. A finish around second or third would have altered the team race significantly.

Colo-NESCO wound up as the team champion with 48 points as four Royals finished in the top 13.

Collins-Maxwell had four in the top 16 and scored 50 points in second. Grand View Christian, running as its own program for the first time, finished third with 51 points.

Collins-Maxwell's Kyle Vanderwal won the race in 18:31.8. Carter Gibson's fifth-place time was 20:07.1 and Strohmeyer was 0.6 seconds behind in sixth.

A.J. Gibson grabbed the final medal in 15th with a time of 21:39.9. Junior Coleman Craig finished 20th in 23:14.1 and freshman John McGill was the final scorer in 24th. McGill's time was clocked at 24:12.6.

Senior Hunter Stevens (25:14.8) and sophomore Mason Edwards (28:06.1) were the final varsity runners.

Colfax-Mingo was missing senior Avery Lees, who has the potential to be a varsity scoring runner this fall.

Baxter's top finisher in the boys' race was freshman Logan Jones in 21st. The first 5K time of his career was clocked at 23:17.2.

Sophomore Curtis Gliem and freshman Keenan Varner also ran a 5K for the time in their careers. Gliem was 22nd in 23:20.8 and Varner finished 34th in 27:42.4.

"I was pleased with how we competed. We have a base line to work with," Baxter coach Dennis Vaughn said. "None of the boys who ran today had ever ran a 5K before. And Elie was the only one on the girls' side to do that. They tested the waters so now we build from here."

Collins-Maxwell won the girls' team championship with 26 points. The Spartans put all seven varsity runners in the top 15. The other four scoring teams were BGM (42), Grand View Christian (74), Colo-NESCO (99) and Colfax-Mingo (124).

Without Conradi the Bolts were one runner short of qualifying for a team score.

After Tuhn came freshman Morgan Hansen in 18th. Her time was clocked in 27:19.2. Freshman Reagan Russell was 24th in 29:09.2 and senior Merrin Ziesman finished 25th in 29:23.6.

"Our second mile for both boys and girls were a little slower than we wanted," Vaughn said. "We still have some conditioning to do. We are a little behind from where we want to be, but we'll work on it. That will come along."

Vaughn was not surprised by Tuhn's dominant victory. And he expects her to continue to get better as the season progresses.

"We knew she'd be good because we looked at some of her times from Nevada from past few years," Vaughn said. "She's ran a PR of around 20:17 so we knew she'd help us.

"I saw it in practice, too. She's a good runner. I wasn't surprised at all."

As for Conradi, Vaughn said he hoped she would be able to run Monday but the trainer told her not to out of precaution.

"It's the first meet so we don't need to risk anything at this point," Vaughn said.

Colfax-Mingo's girls' team was missing a few runners, too, including projected No. 1 Carley Underwood, who is nursing some early-season injuries.

Sophomore Joslyn Chadwick led the Tigerhawks as she finished 27th in 29:47.2. Junior Kirsten Frier was 30th in 31:27 and the rest of the varsity scorers were senior Brennan Rhone (31:38.7) in 31st, senior Daytin Chadwick (32:09.7) in 32nd and senior Miranda McGill (37:52.4) in 39th.

"The girls set a goal tonight to try to beat their time from last year and I think almost every one of the girls did that," Tomas said. "We had some girls who ran varsity for the first time tonight. We are in a good spot. They seemed to be excited about how they did and now we can build off it."

The Bolts return to action at 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 5 at Central College in Pella. Colfax-Mingo competes at 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 3 at Wildwood Park in Ottumwa.