By Allyson Fillmore
EDDYVILLE – It was an emotional roller coaster.
Last week, the Montezuma High School girls cross country team won its first meet title in decades.
Now, they’ve won their second in a row at the Eddyville-Blakesburg Invitational.
What was the emotional roller coaster all about?
Well, Albia was announced as meet champions. Upon further review/ investigation/known fact, it turned out that scorers had omitted one of the scoring runners from the Bravettes’ lineup.
After a brief delay for some numbers crunching the Bravettes were able to celebrate with another well-earned trophy and individual medals! (The Bravettes won by 24 points).
Tuesday, Sept. 24 was a perfect day for a cross country meet – sunny, slight breeze, and temperatures in the upper 70s/low 80s.
The junior high runners started it off and 8th graders Carter McKee and Jack Erselius were top-10 finishers. The junior high girls and boys have really been getting the hang of racing and continue to make improvements each race.
“While no junior high girls earned top 10 finishes, both Ellen Cook and Alivia Cline ran the two fastest times recorded by a Montezuma runner on this course,” said Bravettes head Coach Kevin Gartman. “On the boys’ side, Carter McKee placed sixth and Jack Erselius eighth, and both boys broke the old course record in the 1.5-mile distance.”
High school girls had three top 10 finishers: Elise Boulton (2), Madison Johannes (6), and Mia Boulton (9).
“The Bravettes were exceptionally strong as each girl finish with a new fastest time for the season,” Gartman said. “And, it was career bests for Johannes, Mia Boulton, Carmen Klos, Haley VanDerHart, Alyssa Cline, Katie Probasco and Sadie DeJong.”
Varsity girls were missing one of their typical scorers: sophomore, Rebeka Teumer, due to illness.
The team had individuals step up into their roles to fill out the squad and continue to tighten their spread from the first to the fifth runner (top 5 score, 6 & 7 break ties). The growth and improvement of this group of girls has been exciting to witness so far this season.
Varsity boys also have continued to get better each race and find new things to work on and improve with their race strategies and competitive mentality.
Juniors Brydon Henning and Brayden Stockman had exciting end-of-race finishing kicks. “All four, including Zach Templeton and Colton Benson, also ran their fastest times of the season,” Gartman said.
Full results coming soon!
COMING ATTRACTIONS – Catch the high schoolers at Moravia on Thursday, September 26th or the whole team at Clear Creek Amana on Monday, September 30th!
