Richardson’s career-best time leads Baxter harriers at Dike-New Hartford

DIKE — Matt Richardson ran the second fastest boys’ 5K in program history on Tuesday.

The Baxter cross country teams faced a tough and large field at Dike-New Hartford and Richardson finished 14th to lead the Bolts.

Richardson’s new career-best time and second-best time in Bolts’ history was clocked in 17 minutes, 34.4 seconds. The Bolts were 17th in the 20-team field with 434 points.

Zoey Gliem led the Baxter girls in 48th, but the squad did not have enough runners for a team score.

After Richardson for the Baxter boys was Logan Rainsbarger, who was 74th in 19:27.8. Logan Jones (20:25), Maddox Peters (21:39.8) and Austin England (26:36.1) were the other scoring runners in 107th, 127th and 139th, respectively.

Hudson Bethards (26:44.9) was a non-scoring runner in 140th.

Class 2A No. 8 Denver won the boys’ meet title with 67 points, and 2A No. 7 GCGR was second with 69. Grinnell (89), Charles City (107) and Benton Community (156) completed the top five.

Class 2A No. 3 Kaden Lynch of GCGR won the boys’ race in 16:00.4. Class 2A No. 22 Brennen Sanger of GCGR was the runner-up in 16:41.9.

Gliem’s 48th-place finish was clocked in 22:25.5. Emie Tuhn (23:33.2) was 79th, Regan Russell (25:37.6) finished 118th and Maddie Iske (43:24.7) came in 132nd.

Class 1A No. 1 Meghan Wheatley of North Linn won the girls’ race in 18:41 and 2A No. 2 Katelyn Johnston of Osage was the runner-up in 18:45.5.

Class 2A No. 7 Denver won the girls’ meet title with 68 points. Class 1A No. 7 Hudson (126), 1A No. 11 North Linn (143), 3A No. 10 Iowa Falls-Alden/AGWSR (156) and Union Community (199) completed the top five.