Three Tigerhawk boys earn medals at home XC meet

COLFAX — Colfax-Mingo sophomore Harrison Rhone experimented with a faster start on Thursday.

Maybe it was a bit too fast though.

Rhone still led all area runners at the Tigerhawk Cross Country Invitational at Kelly Fields. He was sixth overall in the boys’ 5K race, while Baxter’s Matt Richardson placed eighth to lead the Bolts.

“We are experimenting with him getting out faster,” C-M head cross country coach Zach Tomas said. “I think he probably went out too fast tonight, and he knows that. But at the same time, you don’t know how fast you can go until you do it. He’s in a good spot for this part of the season.”

Colfax-Mingo, Baxter and Newton’s JV were part of the nine-team field which included three incomplete teams.

The Tigerhawks led the area in fourth with 114 points. Newton’s JV was eighth with 197 and Baxter was one of the three incomplete teams.

Newton’s Asher Wood led the Cardinals in 25th with a personal-best time of 19 minutes, 18.05 seconds.

“I was excited to see so many times drop, a sign that these boys are starting to see the payoff of practice,” Newton boys head cross country coach Steve Weeks said.

The top 25 finishers in each varsity race earned medals. The other area medalists came from Colfax-Mingo and they were Josue Rodriguez and Tony Buenrostro.

Class 1A No. 17 North Mahaska won the boys team title easily with 35 points. The Warhawks’ top four runners finished 2-3-4-7.

Class 1A No. 18 Collins-Maxwell was second with 87 points. Class 1A No. 14 Ethan Haus won the race in 16:57.36.

Clarke was third with 93 points and Colfax-Mingo and Grand View Christian tied with 114, but the Tigerhawks took fourth because they had a better sixth runner.

The rest of the nine-team field included Woodward-Granger (120), Woodward Academy (167), Newton’s JV (197) and Saydel (207). Baxter, Colo-NESCO and BGM were incomplete.

“We’ve ramped up our training. They’ve put in a lot of miles this week already,” Tomas said. “I didn’t expect amazing performances because of that. They did better than I thought they’d do though.”

Rhone’s sixth-place finish was clocked in a season-best 18:03.02. Rodriguez was 15th in a season-best 18:42.63 and Buenrostro was 22nd in a season-best 19:12.55.

The other two scoring runners were Xavier Woods (season-best 20:17.91) in 38th and Owen Ament (season-best 20:49.77) in 46th.

Colfax-Mingo’s two non-scoring varsity finishers were Mason Edwards (season-best 21:26.99) in 53rd and Austin Lane (season-best 22:03.89) in 60th.

Edwards is the only senior in that top seven.

“The boys are a young team, but we can see improvements,” Tomas said. “There are a few who have not run what they can and should be running, but we have time. I think it’s coming. We can’t ask for better effort.”

After Wood in 25th for Newton, Lance Zaabel finished 37th in a personal-best 20:06.86. Cole Walter (20:40.77) was 45th, Joel Lewis (21:44.59) finished 57th and Kenny Skinner-Havens was 59th in a career-best 21:52.47.

The two non-scoring runners were Colin Cummins (personal-best 22:35.24) and Jacob Smith (22:39.38) in 63rd and 65th, respectively.

“At the start of the year, we anticipated seeing movement between varsity and JV, and now we are starting to see that heat up more as we hit the halfway point of the season,” Weeks said. “The trick now will be preparing for an Oskaloosa course that has a few hills, which will slow down times.”

Richardson’s eighth-place finish for the Bolts was clocked in 18:15.28. Logan Rainsbarger (19:46.15) was 33rd, Logan Jones (20:21.97) finished 42nd and Maddox Peters (22:56.29) came in 70th.

Notes: Baxter head cross country coach Dennis Vaughn was not available for comment because he was out of town attending a family wedding. … Grand View Christian won the event’s traveling trophy, which goes to the school with the lowest total score from its two varsity teams. Only teams with two full squads are eligible to win the traveling trophy.