Good efforts, but no state meet this year

Claire Erselius, left, and Haileah Eichenberger compete at the state qualifier. (Marie Boulton photos).

JEWELL – The Braves and Bravettes turned in some strong efforts, but all runners saw their cross country seasons come to an end in the state qualifying meet on Thursday, Oct. 25 at Jewell in north central Iowa.

In order to make it to the Class 1A state meet, runners had to be on one of the top two boys or girls teams, or be in the top 10 individual runners.

Senior Ellen Cook came the closest, with a 16th-place overall finish in 22:26.4.

Ellen Cook runs at the state qualifying meet.

The Braves packed their top four finishers with about 32 seconds of each other. That bodes pretty well for the future on a boys team that had just one senior, Jusiah Wetering, this year.

Come back later for commentary from Coach Kevin Gartman.

CC girls state qualifier
at South Hardin

Montezuma 9th out of 11 full teams

Bravettes – 16, Ellen Cook, 22:26.4.; 32, Alexa Rose, 24:00.0; 50, Sophia Semprini, 26:01.1; 56, Claire Erselius, 26:54.9; 67, Haileah Eichenberger, 28:25.4. There were 77 runners.

Linkyn Bru, left, competes at the state qualifying meet.

CC boys state qualifier
at South Hardin

Montezuma 12th of 14 full teams

Braves – 50, Cade Lowry, 20:06.4; 54, Jusiah Wetering, 20:16.6; 66, Cael Cheney, 20:35.6; 67, Dayton Reif, 20:38.9; 81, Linkyn Bru, 21:47.7; 89, Nick Damon, 22:38.2. There were 106 runners.