SEARSBORO – Montezuma’s runners had some fun competing in the recent SICL cross country meets at Big Springs Shooting Complex. Coach Kevin Gartman furnished notes for us:
JH girls finish second, just 4 points behind Lynnville-Sully.
All 8 JH runners run stronger tonight than they did on the same course on Thursday, cutting anywhere from 6 to 43 seconds off their time for a 1.6-mile race.
Three top 10 medalists, and all should be proud! This group should take another step at Ankeny Centennial on Saturday at the junior high state meet.
HS girls – only 4 runners tonight for us,so we had no team score, BUT lots of fun to share.
- Let’s start with a long fun fact about Claire Erselius and the state of SICL XC. Claire ran her fastest time in 1,090 days tonight. Claire has been battling hip injuries since going into her sophomore year.
- In 2022, Claire placed 5th at conference, earning 1st-Team All-Conference honors. Claire was 20 seconds faster tonight. The SICL is really strong right now.
- Sophia Semprini didn’t know if she was going to be able to compete tonight until midday because she’s also fighting injuries and found a way to earn a new career-best time by a second. Wild. Glad we ran!
- Haileah Eichenbeger had a goal coming into today of getting below 26:00 but ran strong throughout the race and decided to just go ahead and skip the 25s entirely (unheard of), coming in with a new career PR (24:34) by 1 minute and 34 seconds.
- Lexi Rose was 35 seconds faster than 5 days ago at our home meet, which equals out to about 10 seconds per mile over 3.1 miles. Big cut.
HS boys finish 5th after being projected 6th coming in, so a good sign for the boys and how they competed as they finish top half of the SICL once again. There are 10 XC teams in the SICL.
- Cade Lowry breaks into the 18s for the first time with an 18:59, 15-second career best, and ties the Big Springs course record that Dayton set 5 days ago.
- Dayton runs a 19:06, picking up his 6th meet finish below 20:00 after having only one sub-20 finish last year.
- Linkyn runs a new career best by 19 seconds and claims the 10th fastest SICL meet time since 2008.
- Luke runs a new career-best by 11 seconds and lands himself a new spot on the course top 10.
- Caio cuts 20 seconds in 5 days, finishing much stronger than Thursday
We should learn our state qualifying site Wednesday and I look forward to preparing and growing towards next Thursday! I’m excited to see how the state spreads out our conference, as I believe that English Valleys, Lynnville-Sully, North Mahaska, and even Sigourney if they can find that fifth runner all have a legitimate shot on the girls side to join the Lynnville boys at state.
We’ve had many years where the SICL only got 5 total individual qualifiers to state, but I suspect as many as 25 SICL girls and 10-11 SICL boys could be running in Fort Dodge this year. It’s been a fast year in the South Iowa Cedar – I look forward to seeing where it takes us tomorrow!
SICL CC Meet
at Big Springs Shooting Complex
Oct. 14 – hosted by BGM
Junior High Girls – 3,200M
Teams – 1, Lynville-Sully, 33, Montezuma 43. There were five scoring teams. There are 10 SICL cross country teams.
Montezuma runners – 1, Ava Anderson, 9:20.08; 7, Brea Cheney, 10:56.48. 10, Teagan Sutherland, 11:06.71. 16, Addilyn Ross, 11:21.54; 19, Elise Mathes, 12:25.24. 24, Lucy Semprini, 12:42.93; 30, Karley Eichenberger, 13:15.03 31 Alyssa Latcham, 13:16.72. There were 49 runners.
Middle School Boys – 3,200M
No Montezuma runners
Teams – 1, English Valleys 21.
High School Girls 5K
Teams – 1, English Valleys 50. There was no scoring Montezuma team. There are 10 SICL XC teams in all.
Montezuma runners – 23, Claire Erselius, 23:38.39. 29, Sophia Semprini. 24:12.29; 34, Haileah Eichenberger, 24:34.70. 35, Alexa Rose, 24:37.62. There were 52 runners.
High School Boys – 5K
Teams 1, Lynnville-Sully. 33; 5, Montezuma 151. There are 10 SICL XC teams in all.
Montezuma runners – 17, Cade Lowry, 18:59.39; 20, Dylan Reif, 19:06.72. 26, Linkyn Bru, 19:38.45; 37, Luke Benson, 20:34.54; 66, Caiao Arauju, 24:17.01. There were 72 runners.