The Cross Country team picked up where they left off last season with fast times and a strong showing in Tuesday’s Spoofhound Invitational. The varsity boys won the team meet, had four medalists and several career personal records. The girls varsity only had four runners compete in the race, so were not able to qualify for a team score, but finished with three medalists in a very hot race where there were did not finish runners on the course.
Sophomore Luke Thompson finished third place overall amongst the 61 runners in the boys varsity 5k, with a time of 17:14. He finished 15 seconds behind the winner of the race, senior Riley Blay of West Nodaway. Teammates Laik Graham and Cain Evans were not far behind, finishing 5th and 6th respectively, in times of 17:30 and 17:32. Alton Keller also medaled for the Hornets running a time of 18:53, good for 14th place. Rounding out the varsity lineup for the Hornets and securing the team victory were Carter Shipers in 22nd, Lake Englert 24th, and Austin Lyford 26th. The Hornets finished with a team score of 43, ten points better than 2nd place, host Maryville.
For the girls, Yoo Jung Lee and Alice Hurtgen both finished inside the top 10 of the race. Jung Lee was 9th with a final 5k time of 25:15, and Hurtgen finished 10th in 25:31. Lydia Gabrielson finished in the medals with a time of 25:50, good for 13th place. Sophie Hurtgen completed the girls varsity lineup in 22nd place.
Trace Akers won JV boys race, Landyn Peterson took 3rd, and Zephania O’Berry medaled in 6th.
On the girls side, Adrian Caselman placed 2nd in the JV race.
Middle school totally dominated, with 5 boys in the top 10, all running a 6 minute flat or faster pace.
Here is Coach Jennifer Dickson after the teams performance, “I’m really proud of how hard these kids have worked over the summer preparing for their season, and it showed! We have work to do, as Class 3 distance has gotten FAST in the last few years, but definitely blessed to have a team full of driven, determined kids! There are 15 middle school runners out and it was really exciting to watch them all come through!”
The next meet for Chillicothe will be our Home Invitational – 9/5 in Simpson Park!