Handorf sets new school record, leads Bolts to fifth at Dike-New Hartford

DIKE — Max Handorf dropped out of the cross country rankings because he hasn’t competed since early September due to an injury.

But after setting a school record on Tuesday, it won’t take the two-time state qualifier long to get back into the 1A medal-contention conversation.

Handorf and the Baxter boys cross country team faced a tough field at the Dike-New Hartford Invitational and came home with a fifth-place finish.

“We came in with the goal of finishing third,” Baxter head cross country coach Ian Thomson said. “We knew Denver and Grinnell were probably out of reach, but we thought we could hang with some of those bigger 2A and 3A teams, which we did well against.”

The Class 1A No. 20 Bolts were missing top-five runner Maddox Peters due to an injury, but they scored 186 points in fifth.

Class 3A No. 4 Grinnell won the meet with 50 points. Class 2A No. 3 Denver (98), Benton Community (141) and 2A No. 13 Jesup (150) also were ahead of Baxter at Fox Ridge Golf Course.

The Bolts finished in front of Aplington-Parkersburg (190), host Dike-New Hartford (202), Mason City Newman (213), Grundy Center (215) and Iowa Falls-Alden as well as the other 12 teams in the 22-team field.

“If we would have had (Peters) I don’t know if we would have caught Jesup and Benton, but we would have been at least right there with them,” Thomson said. “We are running at our best right now and know with a full squad we can go compete with the best of 1A.”

Handorf bested the previous school record set last year by Matt Richardson. His time was clocked in 16 minutes, 16 seconds.

That was good enough for fourth. Only 2A No. 1 Emerson Vokes of Grundy Center, 2A No. 2 Jesse Gomez of Denver and 3A No. 12 Cadel Conner of Grinnell were in front of Handorf.

Vokes won the boys’ 5K race in 15:07.4. Gomez (16:05.5) and Conner (16:05.9) were second and third, respectively.

Handorf finished 14 seconds in front 2A No. 3 Will Nesbit of Jesup and also crossed the finish line in front of 3A No. 27 Liam Crites of Grinnell.

“(Handorf) had a great race,” Thomson said. “He held in the second pack and just got out kicked at the end, but he was right there the entire race and just narrowly got beat out by the No. 2 rated kid in 2A and Cadel from Grinnell, who is highly rated in 3A.”

Class 1A No. 27 Brecken Fisher (17:12.6) was next for Baxter in 12th and Maddux Tuhn (17:26.5) was not far behind in 17th. Dakota Parker (19:30) and Lincoln Russell (career-best 19:50.1) were the final scoring runners in 75th and 86th, respectively.

Parker Bonney (20:53) and Sam Wilhelm (22:48.5) were non-scoring runners in 111th and 140th, respectively.

“Our top three just went out and showed they are one of the best in 1A,” Thomson said. “(Fisher) and (Tuhn) had a great race. They didn’t get beat by a single other 1A runner. I’m sure they would have wished to run a little faster knowing them, but they went out there and competed hard against very good competition.

“(Russell) was huge for us tonight, stepping into that fifth spot and running a 40-second PR to break 20 minutes for the first time.”