The Marion girls’ cross country team beat Andover Central, Council Grove and Goessel to win its home meet last Thursday at Marion County Lake.
Camille Christensen led the Warriors with a fifth-place time of 16 minutes, 52 seconds.
“Camille improved her time from last week by 40 seconds,” coach Bethany Carlson said. “It has been really neat to see that one girl stepping up has pushed the other girls on the team.”
Finishing within 21 seconds of each other were Amanda Richmond (8th, 17:36), Tacy Taylor (10th, 17:56) and Jaclyn Deforest (11th, 17:57). Also competing were Brooke Johnson (13th, 18:03), Bridgett Lundy (20th, 19:01) and Lucy Collett (27th, 20:33).
“We were thrilled with our finish,” Carlson said. “I used to run for Council Grove and it was always great to beat Marion if we did.”
The boys’ finished with 48 points, only 20 points behind the winning Peabody-Burns team. Other teams included Andover Central, Council Grove, Goessel, Herington and Canton-Galva.
Ryan Jones led MHS, finishing in third place with a time of 18:43. Behind him were Louis Holt (6th, 19:28), Elliot Hett (11th, 20:01), Brady Hudson (17th, 20:44), Brandon Meierhoff (19th, 20:50), Corey Seacat (39th, 23:18) and Marshall Ragland (41st, 24:36).
“We were excited about our second-place finish to Peabody—they have a strong team,” Carlson said.
Marion will run at 4 p.m. Thursday at Council Grove.
Peabody-Burns—Behind strong runs from Aaron Topham and Ryan Wiebe, the Warrior boys won the Marion Invitational.
Topham (4th, 18:55) and Wiebe (5th, 19:11) set the pace for three other top-10 finishers: Duane Unruh (7th, 19:31), Josh Klarmann (8th, 19:34), and Kendall Wiebe (9th, 19:43).
Also running for PBHS were Sheldon Wiebe (19th, 20:57) and Seth Methvin (22nd, 21:24).
As a team, the Warriors totaled 28 points.
Lauren Pickens won the junior varsity girls race with a time of 18:25.
Next for PBHS is a trip to Halstead on Thursday.
Goessel—Johnathan Berkholz finished in 21st place in 21:02 to lead the Bluebirds at the Marion Invitational.
He was followed by Laird Goertzen (23rd, 21:05), Jared Reimer (28th, 21:47), Chad Wedel (29th, 21:48), Jake Schrag (31st, 22:10). Marius Schrewe (33rd, 22:35) and Chris Johnston (38th, 23:08).
Goessel placed fifth with 120 team points.
Isaac Fast won the junior varsity race in 22:27.
Sara Boman was the top finisher for the girls, placing 23rd in 19:07. She was followed by Lindsey Wedel (26th, 19:46), Shanna Klassen (30th, 22:20) and Jessika Jesse (32nd, 23:35).
“I still think some of the runners have not reached their potential yet,” coach Greg Bontrager said. “I am sure the mental aspect of running is taking over for them, and that is something that we have to work on.”
Goessel will run Thursday at the Berean Invitational with varsity races set for 4 p.m.
Canton-Galva—Riley Nigh (22:36) and Samuel Janzen (22:39) led the Eagles at the Marion Invitational. Also running were Tad Wedel (23:05), Nathan Bray (23:53), Nick Skiles (25:28), and Codey Johnson (26:47).
“Riley, Sam, and Tad all improved on their best times for the year, and this is the first race Nathan has had since the first race of the season,” coach Lyle Silsby said.
Michelle Shannon (23:11) was the top Eagle girl, and improved her best time by 90 seconds.
