×

Tenth-ranked Mustangs lead locals

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • East Marshall junior Cade Curphy (left) and West Marshall senior Ron Maxey (center) compete for ninth place at the South Tama County Invite on Saturday while GMG sophomore Jackson Edens finishes just behind them in 11th.

TOLEDO — Summer weather made a comeback on Monday evening as eight area cross country teams gathered at the Otter Creek Lake Park for the South Tama County Invitational.

On the boys end of the meet, Class 3A No. 4 Grinnell took home the top three finishing spots but there was a tight race for fourth between Caleb Silver of BCLUW and Cam Hungerford of Class 2A No. 10 East Marshall, as Silver made a come-from-behind effort to overtake fourth place from Hungerford by a few tenths of a second.

Hungerford said he was giving it all he had to cross the finish line before Silver, but in the end the Comet junior had the better kick.

“I just wanted to finish before he did but he got me,” Hungerford said. “There’s always a kick and you have to have to have a good kick if you want to be good, but we will keep working on it and we have the whole season to improve. I hope to keep battling with him.”

There was a bout of illness that quite a few teams were facing on the day, and BCLUW head coach Donna Fiscus said Silver was one of the boys battling through but you couldn’t tell by the way he ran.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • BCLUW junior Neifer Ralston approaches the finish line at the South Tama County Invitational on Monday where he would finish sixth in a race that Comets head coach Donna Fiscus called one of the most impressive from her team on the day.

“Caleb had a cold tonight but he didn’t let that stop him,” she said.

While Silver was the top-finisher for the Comets and the first to cross the finish line from the area, Fiscus said she was most impressed with Neifer Ralstons’ run to take sixth in the meet.

“Neifer is who we were super pleased with, I knew he was capable of top-10,” she said. “That was exciting, for him to get sixth with all that Grinnell in there was awesome.”

Grinnell did end up taking first in the meet with a team score of 35 — led by Joe Simon, Landon Steffen and Matthew Cunningham coming in first, second and third respectively — but East Marshall took second with a 64, 50 points lower West Marshall in third.

Mustangs head coach Trent Taylor said he was greatly encouraged by the way his guys ran on the day, even though they too had a couple of sickness issues to deal with.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

“We ran well, Grinnell is an outstanding team and they had a huge separation but we had a huge separation between second and third,” Taylor said. “Cam looked really good up front and Seth (Kilborn) was struggling a little bit with some sinuses. Brandon Fogt backed off a little bit today, but they know coming in what they want to get and regardless of what obstacles they face they have a tendency to run through them.”

BCLUW finished in fifth just behind West Marshall with a 115, compared to the Trojan’s 114, while Grundy Center/Gladbrook-Reinbeck took sixth with the team score of 124. GMG was next for the area teams, taking seventh with a 157 and tournament-host South Tama County finished eighth with a 182.

Girls fight for second

The girls varsity race also saw a tight competition for the top area finisher, with West Marshall’s Avril Sinning nudging out GMG’s Kyla Wilkening by one second to take second place with a time of 21:25.

Sinning said it was nice having someone like Wilkening to run with during the race because they are closely matched, which makes running a tough course like the one at Otter Creek Lake Park a little easier.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

“The course is really hard and there’s a lot of big hills, it’s easiest if you find someone your speed to run with and keep with them most of the time and try to help them out also,” she said.

Wilkening said she also enjoyed running alongside Sinning, but as they came around the final corner she knew Sinning was about to turn on the jets.

“She was with me the last part of the race and I tried to stay with her for a little bit,” the Wolverine senior said. “I like her, she’s a good runner and I knew coming around the corner she was going to get it so I thought ‘I am just going to do my own thing.'”

Class 3A No. 12 Grinnell’s Mary Blanchard took first in the race with a 20:40, and three other Tigers finished in the top-10 to give Grinnell the top team score with a 30.

West Marshall was next with a 77, led by Sinning’s second place and Grace Girard’s 10th-place finish. Sinning said she enjoys finishing as high as she can, but not for her own benefit, for the team’s.

“I like to place high and PR and I really like to help my teammates and make sure they do well also,” she said.

GR/G-C took third with an 82 off the back of two top-10 performances as well, with Lily Ehlers finishing in sixth and Reagan Zinkula taking eighth. The Spartans have run quite a bit in the first three weeks of the season, but now they have a lengthy break before their next race, and head coach Andy McQuillen said having that break will be great for his team to heal up and get back into some practice.

“I think we need to kind of figure out as a team, both boys and girls, what our goals are and we will keep working to get better and better every day,” he said. “It’s always nice to get a little bit of a break where you get some consistent practices because it’s actually been 10 or 12 days since we had a decent practice since we’ve had so many meets.”

Taking fourth as a team was STC, who saw Callie Frakes return to the course after missing the last couple of meets with a leg injury to finish in ninth at her home meet. Trojans head coach Robert Tyynismaa said it was good having Frakes back out and running, though she still has some work to do before she’s back to 100 percent.

“Our goal was to try to get her ready for the home meet so we were rehabbing and doing certain things that seemed like it was working,” he said. “She was running without pain and discomfort and she said she was ready to go today. She ran OK, I think her physical fitness suffered in that downtime off the injury.”

East Marshall and GMG each had a 112 team score, with the Mustangs taking fifth off a tie breaker, and North Tama rounded out the team scoring by taking seventh with a 197.

Coach Taylor of East Marshall said, though his boys team is more highly rated right now, his girls are the ones who have shown the most growth.

“From meet one to meet two, our girls had more improvement than our boys did,” Taylor said. “Once again, compared to last year and comparing the girls who ran this last year we ran tough. This is a tough course and they know that, instead of psyching themselves out they prepare for it and get past the first mile and then they just get it out. I am really proud of the girls, there is no question they ran well tonight.”

South Tama County Invitational

At Otter Creek Lake Park

GIRLS

Team Standings — 1. Grinnell 30, 2. West Marshall 77, 3. Grundy Center/Gladbrook-Reinbeck 82, 4. South Tama County 102, 5. East Marshall 112, 6. GMG 112, 7. North Tama 197.

Individual (top 10) — 1. Mary Blanchard, GRN, 20:40; 2. Avril Sinning, WM, 21:25; 3. Kyla Wilkening, GMG, 21:26; 4. Nola Conner, GRN, 21:44; 5. Anjali Jones, GRN, 21:45; 6. Lily Ehlers, GC/G-R, 21:57; 7. Mairead Brownell, GRN, 22:08; 8. Reagan Zinkula, GC/G-R, 22:27; 9. Callie Frakes, STC, 22:34; 10. Grace Girard, WM, 22:38.

WEST MARSHALL (77) — 2. Sinning 21:25, 10. Girard 22:38, 12. Reyna Jorgenson 22:55, 28. Hannah Jovanovich 25:21, 34. Sadie Clark 26:33.

GRUNDY CENTER/GLADBROOK-REINBECK (82) — 6. Ehlers 21:57, 8. Zinkula 22:27, 16. Shelby Rivera 23:03, 21. Cora Saak 24:36, 10. Libby Ross 27:06.

SOUTH TAMA (102) — 9. Frakes 22:34, 11. Jessica Musgrove 22:49, 24. Espy Wasesuk 24:44, 26. Keslie York-Morris 25:14, 50. Andreea Cojocaru 28:38.

EAST MARSHALL (112) — 14. Melinda Puumala 22:59, 18. Wendy Liera 23:52, 30. Olivia Terrones 26:01, 32. Cindy Liera 26:15, 33. Madison Bond 26:25.

GMG (112) — 3. Wilkening 21:26, 23. Zoe Duncan 24:43, 27. Belle Duncan 25:18, 39. Lindsey Slifer 27:06, 43. Grace Schewe 27:35.

NORTH TAMA (197) — 29. Molly Kvidera 26:00, 52. Pollina Litvinova 28:40, 53. Holly Rigel 28:43, 61. Tessa Dvorak 30:29, 65. Jordan Rigel 31:08

BCLUW — 25. Katie Thompson 24:45, 42. Peyton Pekarek 27:25, 45. Samantha Schleisman 27:48, 66. Madison Engle 31:15.

MESKWAKI — 31. Delicia Guevera 26:09, 57. Peyton Tahahwah 29:30.

BOYS

Team Standings — 1. Grinnell 35, 2. East Marshall 64, 3. West Marshall 114, 4. BCLUW 115, 5. Grundy Center/Gladbrook-Reinbeck 124, 6. Belle Plaine 132, 7. GMG 157, 8. South Tama 182.

Individual (top 10) — 1. Joe Simon, GRN, 17:58; 2. Landon Steffen, GRN, 18:11; 3. Matthew Cunningham, GRN, 18:16; 4. Caleb Silver, BCLUW, 18:17; 5. Cam Hungerford, EM, 18:17; 6. Neifer Ralston, BCLUW, 18:38, 7. Kobe Grieder, BP, 18:52; 8. Seth Kilborn, EM, 18:55; 9. Cade Curphy, EM, 19:01; 10. Ron Maxey, WM, 19:03.

EAST MARSHALL (64) — 5. Hungerford 18:17, 8. Kilborn 18:55, 9. Curphy 19:01, 18. Brandon Fogt 19:50, 24. Evan Espenschied 20:19.

WEST MARSHALL (114) — 10. Maxey 19:03, 13. John Hohnstein 19:25, 21. Mark Vanmetre 20:06, 34. Seth Diser 20:59, 48. Cael Kline 21:48.

BCLUW (115) — 4. Silver 18:17, 6. Ralston 18:38, 23. Treye Teske 20:12, 45. Koty Kruse 21:39, 72. Kristian Ferneau 24:49.

GRUNDY CENTER/GLADBROOK-REINBECK (124) — 12. Derek Ciddio 19:21, 19. Kenny Day 19:55, 31. Max Schweppe 20:49, 32. Sam Schildroth 20:49, 41. Hunter Hawk 21:29.

GMG (157) — 11. Jackson Edens 19:06, 22. Spencer Tweedy 20:11, 38. Logan O’Neal 21:07, 53. Alex Tichy 22:19, 83. J.J. Handorf 26:32.

SOUTH TAMA (182) — 20. Chase Branan 20:01, 26. Tyrin Lasley 20:19, 57. Nick Jordan 22:29, 59. Jake Wilkerson 22:58, 50. Ethan Babinat 25:51.

MESKWAKI — 64. Ternin Wanatee 23:30, 92. Micah Youngbear 31:29, 95. Romeo Buffalo 35:13, 97. Donate Brown 39:24.

NORTH TAMA — 56. Logan Kennedy 22:25.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.38/week.

Subscribe Today